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The application of authority has always been problematic. The mood of the times, the dominant ideology or the movement of ideas, or the practical operation of an organization can encourage but also weaken or restrict leaders in their ability to negotiate. Conflicts about competence can demolish this ability. In every society the tandem of authority-resistance is at work. Military tradition, which is steeped in the age-old practices of authority, illustrates this anthropological finding: it installs within the military corps customary or ritual procedures that enhance the hierarchy or make room for spaces of disorder and opposition, the function of which is to regenerate order and to release the tensions inherent in the exercise of authority.