International military organizations of the Global South: comparing the Peninsula Shield Force, the Africa Standby Force, and the Southern Cross Combined Force

Abstract

In the post-Cold War era, only three international military organizations with standing headquarters made up exclusively of militaries of states in the Global South have emerged in the field of peace operations. These are the Peninsula Shield Force, composed of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the Africa Standby Force - made up of five sub-regional African forces, and the Southern Cross Combined Force in South America. This paper proposes a typological-comparative framework to analyze organizational and operational differences between the three mentioned multinational military organizations. The analysis conceptualizes a common condition - iso-dependence - in the peripheral formation of international military organizations. Our analytical framework includes seven organizational variables considered relevant by the literature on international military cooperation: a) isomorphism, b) external dependence, c) operational profile, d) intercultural strategy, e) multinationalism, f) specialization, and g) operational partnerships. This subject is part of doctoral research in development. In the field of military security studies in the Gulf region, this paper allows for the use of relational knowledge on forms of international military cooperation with other areas in the Global South.