ABSTRACT
W. E. B. Du Bois has been proclaimed to be 'the first sociologist of race', and even though race relations in earlier times were much worse than they seem to be today, it may be safe to say that race continues to be a problem in societies all over the world. There are many examples to underline this contention. Challenging race and group relationships is obviously not limited to the United States and its armed forces. For centuries, European nations such as the United Kingdom, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium have colonized other parts of the world, which led to the creation of colonial forces or the integration of soldiers from colonized nations into the European militaries. On a global scale there are many such stories to tell. Among them, the establishment of integrated armed forces in South Africa in the post-apartheid period deserves special mention.
