Camouflage and Culture : An Intercultural Analysis of Identity and Belonging in the Canadian Armed Forces

This thesis examines how identity, recognition, and belonging are experienced within the Canadian Armed Forces, focusing on service members stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Using a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with members from diverse backgrounds and ranks. The analysis explores how formal inclusion frameworks are enacted in everyday practice within a hierarchical military institution. The findings indicate that belonging is shaped less by policy presence than by these interactions, communication, and leadership practices. Participants described experiences of conditional inclusion, conformity, and identity fatigue, pointing to the relational nature of recognition. The study offers a contextualised, empirically grounded account of how inclusion is negotiated in practice and how policy and lived experience can undermine belonging.