ABSTRACT
The emergence of US forces in peace operations since the Cold War has introduced a new note into already familiar problems of civil-military cooperation in these types of operations. The inexperience of the American forces has been exacerbated by high-level scepticism about the appropriateness of such missions for the American military. At the same time, the very large numbers of Americans deployed on recent peace operations, together with the commanding role they have assumed, indeed as they have insisted upon as a condition of their participation (as in Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo), has made it increasingly common that the civilians’ experience with the military has been with the American military. This has been unfortunate, as a judgement of the American military has been widely inferred to be typical of military forces in general. This is far from being the case, therefore it is appropriate now to consider in more detail the sui generis nature of the armed forces of the United States.
