Social Sciences at the University of Bath. His research explores the changing face of conflict and the construction of martial force.Acknowledgements: This research was funded through scholarships from the University of Exeter and Babcock International Ltd. The author is grateful to all those who have contributed to this project, and in particular, to the two anonymous peer reviewers for their insightful observations, as well as all those who provided comments on a previous draft of this paper presented at the International Studies Association Annual Convention 2017.Military integration is intended to facilitate post-conflict stabilization, by creating unified armed forces from formerly antagonistic armed groups. However, integrated armies often struggle to overcome the factional identities of their soldiers, raising questions about interventionists' ability to produce military cohesion during such processes. Yet, in the established scholarship on military cohesion, largely derived from study of Western armed forces, internal small-group social dynamics are privileged over and above broader societal and political identities. This article examines the post-conflict military integration programme conducted in Sierra Leone, in order to test extant theories of military "social cohesion". Contrary to theoretical expectations, military cohesion in Sierra Leone proved highly relianton wider (and highly politicized) societal identities, undermining integration efforts. This finding not only challenges existing understandings of social cohesion and its determinants, but also the utility of military integration as vehicle for post-conflict stabilization and civilmilitary change.2 Military service is an activity deeply infused with social and political meaning. However, this relationship between military service and social identity can have significant implications for post-conflict stabilization, highlighting the role of internal military cohesion during such transitions. In Western armed forces, military cohesion is viewed as the essence of collective resilience, and is considered essential for organizational effectiveness. 1 Yet, in 2014, the UStutored Iraqi Army prominently collapsed in the face of Islamic State militants, with observers citing internal sectarian divisions as a central explanation for battlefield failure. 2 Evidently, the production of military cohesion cannot be taken for granted in such fragile political environments. At the same time, though, prominent approaches to peacebuilding and post-conflict stabilization like military integration rely on the ability to produce military cohesion in socially and politically diverse armed forces. In so doing, they envision a particular relationship between social identity, military service and institutional effectiveness.Advocates of military integration view the process as necessary for political stabilization, as well as a potential exemplar for new forms of communal interaction. 3 However, the apparent difficulty in assuaging antagonistic social and politic...

This article examines the Pakistani military's changing response to the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), to better understand pathways to military accountability and democratic change. An apolitical, non-violent civil-society movement, the PTM challenged the military's domestic-security practices for over a year, eliciting uncharacteristic concessions despite the apparent motive, opportunity and precedent for repression. Curiously, though, the role of civil society in renegotiating military behaviour has been overlooked in mainstream civil-military relations, which focuses on coup propensity at one extreme and harmonious democratic configurations at the other. Using first-hand interviews with PTM activists, security officials, commentators and politicians, this study argues that the PTM's unique appeal to societal and constitutional legitimacy constrained military responses, creating an opportunity to publicly contest military behaviour in a fashion impossible for conventional political elites. Although the military eventually resorted to force, this was itself facilitated by attacks on the underlying parameters of the PTM's societal legitimacy, underscoring the importance of societal-military relations in the space between civilian control and coup d'etat.

No abstract

No abstract