ABSTRACT
For the Palestinians the quest for a military has been intimately involved with liberation and independence (state-building), and the search for a centralized armed force, or a constellation of military institutions that could both defeat a formidable enemy as well as achieve a “monopoly of violence” on the home front. A project to achieve these objectives does not necessarily mandate a particular array of security institutions, either normatively or practically speaking. A centralized and unified force could achieve either both objectives (China, Eritrea, Israel), or neither of them (Algeria). Normatively, liberals as well as radical socialists have championed militias as a means of limiting government, and of protecting individual rights, as well as for the dissemination of radical ideas. Conversely, nationalists from all walks of life have championed the virtues of forging nationalism through the creation of a centralized army.
