Country's military acted largely independently initially (4)
I believe the answer is:
mali
'country's' is the definition.
(Mali is an example)
'military acted largely independently initially' is the wordplay.
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'military acted largely independently' is 'MALI'.
(Other definitions for mali that I've seen before include "West African country, capital Bamako" , "Send mail out to Africa" , "African country, once French Sudan" , "A state" , "Country of West Africa" .)