Culture and the Soldier

Countries have instituted policies to make their armed forces more inclusive, and soldiers now undergo cultural awareness training before seeing active duty. Policy makers and military organizations agree that culture is important. But what does “culture” mean in practice, and how is it important? Culture and the Soldier answers these questions by examining how culture both shapes the military and can be wielded by it, to good or ill effect. Through case studies from Europe and North America, this volume offers provocative insights into how culture can be deployed to improve armed forces at home and in military engagements abroad.

H. Christian Breede is an assistant professor of political science and associate chair of the Public Administration program at the Royal Military College of Canada. He is coeditor (with Stéfanie von Hlatky) of Going to War? Trends in Military Interventions, author of The Idea of Failed States, and has operational experience with the Canadian army in Haiti and Afghanistan. He is cross-appointed with the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University and is also the deputy director of its Centre for International and Defence Policy.Contributors: Stéphanie A.H. Bélanger, Andy Belyea, Vanessa Brown, Pierre Jolicoeur, Frédéric Labarre, Shaohan Lin, Iryna Lysychkina, James R. McKay, Alan Okros, Robert A. Rubinstein, Joel J. Sokolsky, Stéfanie von Hlatky, Corri Zoli.