Ghana’s armed forces enjoy a creditable reputation for participation in international peacekeeping operations (PKOs). Ghanaian soldiers played a key role in the long-lived Economic Community of West Africa Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in Liberia, and they have served in United Nations’ operations outside Africa. Their good performance is often attributed to their professionalism, which, unfortunately, has not been explored in much detail. Assuming that the Ghanaian military performs well in PKOs mainly because its members are the beneficiaries of foreign training overlooks two key factors: namely, that other African militaries which have received foreign training have not performed as well, and that training tends to be more effective if it occurs in an organizational context where merit and achievement are valued.
Factors as yet unresearched may be as important, or more so, in accounting for the Ghanaian armed force’s competency. Is it just a coincidence that a country, which historically has enjoyed a strong center, in part achieved by territorial conquest, or recent, peacekeeping performance and broader historical trends? What are the connections, if any, between modern Ghana’s emergence from the geographical outlines of the Asante confederacy, Ghana’s lack of persistent divisive ethnic conflict, and national cohesion in a time of collapsed states and the professional behavior and international perspective of its military forces?
Career period analysis, a technique pioneered now some considerable time ago by the Asante Collective Biography Project, is well suited to illuminate these questions in part because this methodology can reveal coherent career histories. In a rather different context, Richard Sennett has written that cohesive career histories evidence character in the sense of royalty or commitment to, for example, institutions, or long-term ends. (Sennett: 1998:10) He writes in the context of a 21st century American economy that has changed the world of work in ways that undermine old allegiances. But the concept of a strong personal narrative which accounts for the progression of a career, (including setbacks), and which develops loyalties and commitments beyond oneself may help us to understand the sources of Ghanaian military professionalism and its practical effects in military operations of many kinds.