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Militaries & police forces are rarely neutral actors in ethnic conflicts, at times being potential causes of a problem. They are typically ethnically imbalanced as a result both of historical SE maldistributions of opportunities & of deliberate recruitment strategies pursued by central government elites. The modernization & professionalization of security forces is no guarantee of their communal or political neutrality. Lasting resolution of interethnic & ethnic-state conflicts requires a reorganization of police & militaries thorough enough so that the security of a vulnerable community is substantially enhanced. Modified HA.

Among the most historically prevalent formulas that state elites have used to govern ethnic groups in multiethnic societies are: displacement (including genocide), divide & rule, internal colonialism, "sub-machines," federalism, & assimilation. These distinct formulas do not occur randomly. The two critical variables that determine which statist formula is most likely to be employed for any particular ethnic group are, (1) the perceived value of that group for state maintenance & growth (measured in terms of labor, wealth, skills, land, or votes) & (2) the level of political mobilization of the given ethnic group at a particular time. It is the dynamic relationship of these two variables that is most significant in shaping state formulas for control historically. AA.

A wide-ranging, cross-national survey of police forces suggests that police should be understood in terms not just of crime control but also in terms of maintenance of particular state systems. The US & GB models are atypical insofar as they are decentralized &, until recently, unmilitarized. Most police forces are arms of the central state. Two changes are occurring in Third-World police forces: increasing militarization (though many colonial police had military wings) & increasing use of ethnic criteria in recruitment. The two trends converge when state elites act to ensure that the militarized arms of police are composed of ethnic group members most politically allied to the regime. Both trends affect state-ethnic group relations. Police forces need to be studied in the context of the evolution of political systems. It may be that Third-World & industrialized systems are pursuing very similar paths with regard to the police. Ethnic sensitivity & militarization are, for instance, both increasing now in the US & British police, along with growing centralization. AA.

Virtually all of the literature concerning the politics of South Africa analyzes the dynamics of that system within the frameworks of racism, authoritarianism, and repression. Yet, strangely, the political institution which is necessarily the bulwark of such a system—the military—has attracted scant attention except in terms of strategy and armaments.