Post-2011, in the aftermath of the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan, the promotion of community policing has received notable support from Jordan’s Western allies, and a successful initiative piloted in refugee camps to improve liaison between the police and residents was subsequently expanded to the wider host community. But community policing is an amorphous concept that has varied interpretations in different societies depending on the nature of the prevailing social order. This chapter explores some of the shifting understandings of community policing within the Public Security Directorate, which blend perceptions of Jordan’s tribal identity, with its reputation for low crime rates and a small population, and the notion of civic duty within an increasingly neoliberal society. The latter idea of civic duty, which in what is ultimately an illiberal authoritarian context, restricts the degree to which genuine police–public partnerships are possible in Jordan.

The Marine Corps is a complex, tribal organization. Although Marines pride themselves on “every Marine a rifleman,” subcultures, in particular that of fixed-wing aviation, present a challenge to the organization. Another issue that influences Corps organizational behavior is its partnership with the US Navy in amphibious operations. Gender and ethnicity changes have challenged “Old Corps” cultural norms. The first challenge was racial integration, which began in the 1950s and continues today. Another complication is gender integration, given the masculine dominance values in varied ethnic communities. There is also a potential cultural clash between part of the officer Corps and junior enlisted personnel. A more important potential issue is a cultural clash among Marines at the cutting edge of the Corps’s technological transformation, as well as cultural differences between millennials and older generations. Boot camp is designed to overcome these cultural differences and make every recruit a Marine. The Marine Corps uses its heroic, manufactured past to instill in its personnel a unique identity, that of spartan warrior dedicated to fighting and destroying the nation’s enemies. The Marine Corps must blend two cultures, both important to its political existence and self-image – that of its public warrior image and that of its growing technological reality.

In the second decade of the twenty-first century new challenges proliferate, including socioeconomic pressures and regional conflicts. As young Saudi men enter a rapidly changing world, one of the core questions likely to shape the coming decades is the issue of identity. However, national identity remains a contested and complex issue. When I posed the question ‘What is Saudi?’ to my focus groups I was frequently provided with vague definitions or answers with varying degrees of disagreement amongst group members as to what actually constitutes ‘Saudi’. Whilst the majority of young men I surveyed agreed that a Saudi national identity exists, the coherence of this national identity is contested. This chapter discusses the key issue of identity as it relates to national and personal notions of identity, religiosity and generational divides.