Multinational military forces in the global south: isodependence and the quest for autonomy

This book examines multinational military forces in the Global South and their connections with the global diffusion phenomenon of multinational military cooperation. In the 21st century, three international military organizations with standing headquarters in the Global South have emerged in the field of military operations. These are the Southern Cross Peace Force in Latin America, the Africa Standby Force in Africa, and the Peninsula Shield Force in the structures of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Yet the scholarly literature on multinational operations has given little attention to these organizations and is mostly focused on the Western hemisphere, particularly on European military organizations. So far, military organizations led by peripheral countries in the Global South have been neglected in systematic and comparative analyses. This book seeks to address this gap and use a novel comparative framework to examine inter-organizational differences and similarities in these three important cases. It aims to provide a gateway for theoretical growth now and for future studies, in the Global South and elsewhere. The book demonstrates that, in a global field of military management dominated by standards and resources from central countries, the phenomena of organizational isomorphism and external dependence tend to interweave in the formation of multinational forces in the Global South. A common condition is analyzed through case studies: isodependence. From historical, critical, and postcolonial studies, the book explores how the epistemic autonomy to conduct such force models in the peripheries is constrained in the context of a security geoculture whereby specific attributions, knowledge, and security functions have been unevenly distributed in the modern world system. This book will be of great interest to researchers of military studies, security studies, sociology and conflict studies, and IR in general.