ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to illuminate the trajectory of the Rwandan Military with broader implications for peace consolidation in the country by identifying processes, mechanisms and influences that have shaped the military establishment and defence institutions in Rwanda and how it relates to society. The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) is developed through three identifiable phases: a phase of liberation, securitization and through professionalization. The chapter highlights unique processes of military development which relate specifically to the Rwandan context of post-genocide dynamics and state building using the military. In outlining these features many other areas are highlighted as having contributed to peace consolidation in the RDF and wider Rwandan politics. Militaries rooted in liberation tend to emerge after a civil war where one side is an outright winner and is usually a leftist revolutionary group fighting a Marxist-Leninist, Maoist or Ho Chi Minh-esque protracted bush war.
