Strategic transvestism as a resource for intercultural negotiation in military context

Abstract

Intercultural adaptability as a resource to strengthen collaboration and alliance between different cultural groups is an element that currently stands out due to its effectiveness in the formation of multinational contingents. However, historically this situation has manifested itself through procedures that do not exist today due to the regulation of uniform in the armies. Thus, strategic transvestism as an effective resource to generate new forms of collective representation in conflict situations is a phenomenon that has served in some contexts to performatively endorse the commitment of intercultural alliances. Based on a comparative analysis of three historical cases (Lawrence of Arabia, Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte), its application and results are analyzed according to the degree of xenophilic commitment and integrative approach that its protagonists developed. The results show that the adoption of traits that define the appearance of the other from integrative attitude helps establish a shared cross-identity that promotes collaboration. However, the achievement of the involvement of the other in a plane of mutual appreciation does not prevent resistance from arising within the cultural group itself when seeing in this transvestism a threat to integrity and cultural unity. Thus, on the contrary, in contexts where strategic transvestism is used without abandoning a xenophobic attitude or from an colonialist stance, the other group considers this apparent performative adaptation as a simulation or trickery that emphasize the conflict.