ABSTRACT
It has become widely accepted in the Western world that, to quote the Prussian soldier-intellectual Carl von Clausewitz, ‘War is simply a continuation of political intercourse, with the addition of other means’.1 By this we understand that armies are formed and, when necessary, sent to war as instruments of the political will of the state (or, in the case of stateless peoples, of the community) they serve. But armies are more than the orders they receive from on high and the weapons, rations, officers, training and doctrine they are given in order to fulfill their mission. They inevitably reflect in large measure the particular culture, understood in its broadest sense, from which they emanate. And it is this cultural baggage that does so much to give armies their individual character, the attributes that distinguish them from one another and ultimately determine how faithfully they serve the state or community that has nurtured them.
