Representing military diversity legitimized endless US intervention worldwide

Evidence

Melani McAlister argues that the US military reconfigured itself in this period as a meritocratic institution in which women and people of color could thrive. General Colin Powell was a visible embodiment of this new branding effort. … After the Gulf War, politicians and the press alike expected that the United States would now be able to intervene whenever and wherever its leaders felt necessary. The representations of the military provided the mandate for that power: the diversity of its armed forces made the United States a world citizen, with all the races and nations of the globe represented in its population. As the military would represent the diversity of the United States, the United States, as represented in its military, would contain the world. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 416 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Post-Cold War US empire rebranded military force as benevolent multicultural intervention — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 403; US military diversity was deployed to legitimate global intervention; Military diversity was marketed to justify global intervention as world-citizen duty (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• US military diversity was deployed to legitimate global intervention #corroborates (0.98)
• Military diversity was marketed to justify global intervention as world-citizen duty #expands (0.95)
• US military diversity itself served as imperial branding after the Gulf War #exemplifies (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 416