Police and Military in the Resolution of Ethnic Conflict

Police and Military in the Resolution of Ethnic Conflict

BY: CYNTHIA H. ENLOE

ABSTRACT:

Militaries and police forces are rarely neutral actors in ethnic conflicts.They are typically ethnically imbalanced as a result both of historical socio economic maldistributions of opportunities and of deliberate recruitment strategies pursued by central government elite. The modernisation and professionalization of security forces is no guarantee of their communal or political neutrality. Lasting resolution of inter-ethnic and ethnic-state conflicts require a reorganisation of police and military thorough enough so that vulnerable communities' security is substantially enhanced. 

Cynthia H. Enloe is Associate Professor of Government at Clark University. She received her doctoral degree in Political Science at University of California, Berkeley. She has conducted research in Malaysia, Guyana, and Britain concerning the evolution of ethnic politics. Currently she is Chairman of the Social Science Research Council's Committee on Ethnicity. Among her books are Ethnic Conflict and Political Development (1973), Politics of Pollution in a Comparative Perspective (1975), and Ethnic Soldiers: A Cross National Study of Militaries and Communalism (forthcoming).

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