Military Sociology

2021 ◽  
pp. 95-147
Author(s):  
Zoltan Barany
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Officer Corps ◽  
Military Sociology ◽  
Career Trajectories ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociocultural Issues ◽  
At Home

This chapter discusses issues germane to military sociology and focuses on explaining how sociocultural factors sap the effectiveness of Gulf armies. The first portion of the chapter is devoted to the social and regional backgrounds of enlisted members of the armed forces and explores the reasons for the introduction of mandatory military service in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE. The following section is dedicated to a comprehensive appraisal of the officer corps from cadets to generals, examining their career trajectories and education at home and abroad. The chapter then explores the age-old practice of Gulf rulers to utilize the services of contract soldiers (aka mercenaries) and foreign advisers. The chapter’s last part focuses on sociocultural issues from education to decision-making and the pervasive influence of tribalism.

Officers of the Russian Imperial army as part of the confrontation sides of the Tambov rebellion of 1920–1921

2020 ◽  
pp. 234-244
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Kanishchev
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sufficient Degree ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Military

We consider a new aspect of the well-studied themе, related to objective circumstances and subjective motives for choosing a life position in the Civil war: the entry of former officers of the Russian Imperial army into the ranks of the Soviet or rebel armed forces. First of all, contradic-tions in information about the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary military service of a se-lected circle of persons are revealed. With a sufficient degree of accuracy, 16 former officers who became the leaders of the suppression of the “Antonovshchina” in 1920–1921 and a maximum of 23 rebel commanders from the ranks of officers of the “old” army are identified. Differences of the social and professional image of the commanders of the opposing sides are established. Among the Soviet commanders, career officers from different classes prevailed, including 5 peasants (only 1 – Russian), of non-Tambov origin, who entered the region no earlier than 1917. On the contrary, among the rebel military leaders, all, except for one tradesman, came from the peasant class (only 3 were not from the Tambov Governorate). However, the loyalty of some former rebel commanders to their political leadership was low. Therefore, the study specially analyzes the “psychology of betrayal” of such people who went over to the side of the Soviet troops. The military leaders of the suppression of the Tambov rebellion, who came from the officer environment, made a choice in favor of Soviet power in 1917–1918 and by 1920 they repeatedly showed loyalty to the “workers’ and peasants’ state”. However, for the time being, this state recognized the devotion of, in principle, alien to it “gold-chasers”. In the 1930s almost all officers who took part in the suppression of the Tambov rebellion became victims of political repression.

Imperial continuities: Irish doctors and the British armed forces, 1922–45

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven O’Connor
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
British Military ◽  
The Social ◽  
Career Advice ◽  
Irish Medical ◽  
Military Services

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Irish doctors led successful careers in the British Empire’s military medical services. Surprisingly, Irish medical connections with the British military were not simply severed once the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom in 1921, as might be expected. Rather, they rapidly grew in the 1920s and 1930s. This chapter asks why British military service continued to prove so popular among Irish doctors, making extensive use of a database of 262 Irish medical officers who served in the British forces between 1922 and 1945. The chapter reveals striking patterns in the social profile of officers, their motives, career success and the peaks and troughs of recruitment. It seems that many Irish medical officers complained that appointments in Irish hospitals were controlled by nepotism and that limited jobs were available. Several Irish publications which dispensed career advice to medical students during the 1930s not merely acknowledged, but actually recommended, opportunities in the British military services in preference to the Irish Army Medical Service - castigated for its poor pay, promotion prospects and pension entitlements. The result was an outflow of Irish medical practitioners beyond the attaining of Irish independence.

1 OCTOBER 1942: ADOLF HITLER, WEHRMACHT OFFICER POLICY, AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION

2000 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 801-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
MACGREGOR KNOX
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Officer Corps ◽  
Adolf Hitler ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
German Armed Forces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Secondary Factor ◽  
Modern War

The origins of the process that transmuted Prussia–Germany's most hallowed social institution and professional group, the officer corps, into a functional elite of ‘National Socialist Führer-personalities’ remain obscure. Recent studies have argued that the ‘structural pressures of modern war’ – the immense losses of summer 1942 – compelled the abolition of time-honoured educational and social qualifications for officer candidacy and the basing of promotions almost solely on battlefield prowess, and that ‘National Socialist elite manipulation’ was at best a secondary factor. Yet archival evidence makes clear that the pressures of war took second place in the army's official mind to the need to preserve order and tradition, and that it was above all Adolf Hitler who dictated the timing, shape, and extent of changes that the bureaucrats were largely incapable of imagining. ‘Führer-selection through battle’ was simultaneously the most far-reaching and lasting element in the social revolution that Hitler sought, and a decisive step in steeling the German armed forces for their fight to the bitter end. In this as in other areas, it was National Socialism's very modernity that endowed it with demonic force.

scholarly journals The retraining of the servicemen of the armed forces of Ukraine within the framework of the NATO-Ukraine program

2018 ◽  
pp. 99-112
Author(s):  
Iryna Avtushenko
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Social Adaptation ◽  
Difficult Situation ◽  
Military Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Military

The reduction and reform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has caused the social issues associated with adapting to the new living conditions and the activities of the servicemen dismissed from the military service to the reserve or retirement. During the period of transition from military life to civilian, many officers needed retraining for gaining new civilian specialties, which required financial support from the state. But the difficult situation in the country did not allow massively invest the budgetary funds needed to solve this issue. That is why the NATO’s support concerning the financing of programs aimed at social adaptation of servicemen dismissed from military service, as well as those included in the plan of dismissal from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, becomes dramatically important. In the years of independence, by means of these programs over 8 thousand servicemen have been retrained. For implementation of programs for the adaptation of servicemen all over the country, the centers for training of servicemen have been set up in the cities. Therefore these centers supported a large number of the dismissed servicemen or those who were to be dismissed, by giving them the opportunity to get a civilian specialty which was in demand in the labor market.

scholarly journals Cadets in portuguese military academies: a sociological portrait

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Carreiras ◽  
Fernando Bessa ◽  
Patrícia Ávila ◽  
Luís Malheiro
Keyword(s):  
Military Training ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Social Origins ◽  
Officer Corps ◽  
Recruitment Pattern ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Military Academies ◽  
Service Academies ◽  
Using Data

The aim of this article is to revisit the question of the social origins of the armed forces officer corps, using data drawn from a survey to all cadets following military training at the three Portuguese service academies in 2016. It puts forward the question of whether the sociological characteristics of the future military elite reveal a pattern of convergence with society or depart from it, in terms of geographical origins, gender and social origins. The article offers a sociological portrait of the cadets and compares it with previous studies, identifying trends of change and continuity. The results show that there is a diversified and convergent recruitment pattern: cadets are coming from a greater variety of regions in the country than in the past; there is a still an asymmetric but improving gender balance; self-recruitment patterns are rather stable, and there is a segmented social origin pointing to the dominance of the more qualified and affluent social classes. In the conclusion questions are raised regarding future civil-military convergence patterns as well as possible growing differences between ranks.

RETURNING OF COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE – DECISION ADDENDUM

2021 ◽  
pp. 247-262
Author(s):  
MILOVAN SUBOTIĆ
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
Defense System ◽  
Individual Life ◽  
Compulsory Military Service ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Media Space ◽  
Full Capacity

The obligation to serve in the Serbian Armed Forces was suspended ending with the last batch of soldiers sent in 2010, and it also referred to recruits who, due to conscientious objection, replaced military service with civilian service. This decision was carried out on 1 January 2011, and since then military service has been based on the principle of voluntariness. Ten years later, judging by the statements of state officials and the extensive media space which this topic occupies, we are never closer to returning to compulsory military service. Recognising the fact that the 'thawing' of military service would have significant counteractions not only on the defense system but also on the broader context of community and individual life, this paper emphasises the importance of a nuanced approach to the problem. The experiences of the countries that have returned to military service are precious, so at the beginning of the paper, all the attention is aimed at that direction. The experiences of countries with a continuous duration of military service are also analysed, on the examples of those who carry out this service at full capacity and those who have formally compulsory military service, but whose armed forces are almost 100% replenished with volunteers. The context of the possible return of compulsory military service in Serbia is viewed from the point of several supremacist aspects important for decision-making, such as the current security situation and several complementary aspects, such as economic, functional and legal. It is important to point out that the authors do not value themselves in this paper, but the key intention of the paper is to understand a number of factors that must be taken into account when deciding on this issue.

scholarly journals SISTEM ZNANSTVENE ANALIZE DRUŽBENEGA OkOLJA V PODPORO POVELJEVANJA

2012 ◽  
pp. 91-104
Author(s):  
BORIS RUTAR
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Intelligence Community ◽  
Military Organizations ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Human Terrain System

Zaradi okoliščin, v katerih so se znašle zahodne vojaške organizacije pri izvajanju po- konfliktnih operacij, je bilo nujno najti ustrezne načine obveščevalne priprave bojišča, ki bi zamenjali osredotočenost na nasprotnika z osredotočenostjo na prebivalstvo. Kot del širše reorganizacije in evolucije obveščevalne dejavnosti so oborožene sile ZDA uveljavile koncept družbene geografije, ki vključuje znanstvenike s področja druž- boslovja. Namen prispevka je predstaviti in osvetliti sistem znanstvene analize druž- benega okolja v podporo poveljevanja (HTS) in pomen družboslovnih znanosti ter poudariti vlogo sistema pri podpori bojnemu odločanju. Avtor predstavi dosežke in uporabnost sistema znanstvene analize družbenega okolja na primeru Afganistana ter sklene z ugotovitvijo, da je treba kljub očitnim pomanjkljivostim sistema nadaljevati njegov razvoj, še posebno z večjo udeležbo vseh držav članic Nata. Due to the circumstances encountered by western military organizations when executing post conflict operations, the urgent need for more adequate intelligen- ce preparation of the battlefield arose, where the enemy-orientated intelligence should be replaced by a population-centric one. As part of a broad reorganization and evolution of the intelligence community, the US Armed Forces introduced the concept of Human Terrain System based on the active participation of social science academia. The aim of the article is to present the Human Terrain System and the im- portance of the social sciences, as well as to highlight its importance in support of military decision making. The author uses Afghanistan as a model to demonstrate the system’s results and utility. In the conclusion, he argues that, regardless of its obvious shortcomings, the development of the Human Terrain System should continue with special emphasis being put on greater involvement of all NATO member states

scholarly journals SOCIAL RESOURCES OF THE PRIMORSKY KRAI FOR SERVICE UNDER THE CONTRACT IN ARMED FORCES OF RUSSIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-187
Author(s):  
Angelina S. VASHCHUK ◽  
Elena N. CHERNOLUTSKAIA
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Social Resources ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Primorsky Krai ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Demographic Dynamics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Qualitative Characteristics

Introduction. The topic of military reform in Russia in the late XX - early XXI centuries is part of the fundamental problem of relations between Russian society and the army. The literature traces different approaches in her research. One of the important areas is the study of the transition to a professional army, which actualizes the problem of the social resources of such a transition, taking into account the characteristics of specific territories. The proposed article discusses the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of social resources of the Primorsky Krai for the formation of contract troops, including the demographic dynamics of the respective age cohorts, attitudes towards this type of professional activity from those who have not yet served youth (for example, students) and those who have experience contract military service.Methods. The empirical basis of the article consists of official documents, statistical data on demographic dynamics, materials of opinion polls of 2017. The study used factor and comparative analysis; in the study of demographic resources - the method of compiling tables, longitudinal and transverse analysis. Conclusions are also obtained on the basis of the application of the questionnaire method.Results. Over the past 10 years after the end of hostilities in Chechnya, a new social and professional group has emerged in the country - peacetime contract servicemen; elements of increased expectations of positive changes in the Russian army are actively forming in Russian society. Nevertheless, the Primorsky Krai remains a territory with a reduced social resource for recruiting young people under contract, which is important to take into account in Russia’s domestic policy. In the foreseeable 20-year term, the reduction in the number of male population suitable for contract service will continue. On the other hand, in Primorye, a low degree of orientation among students towards military service as a form of social mobility remains.Conclusions. Despite the good implementation of recruitment plans for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation under the contract in recent years, the degree of physical and moral readiness of young people for it was insufficient, which entailed a high “turnover” of contract soldiers in the army, the predominance of insufficiently experienced personnel among them. The policy of increasing the prestige of the social and professional status of a contractor, along with measures of material interest, must be supported by in-depth (and not just “parade”) patriotic education and preliminary moral and psychological training for young people. It is the qualitative characteristics that can increase the importance of a social recruitment resource for a contract service and, to a certain extent, compensate for the demographic restrictions in the territories.

scholarly journals War crime in the conditions of the Joint Forces Operation: a criminological description

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-185
Author(s):  
Yuriy Krychun
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
The State ◽  
Joint Forces ◽  
Significant Damage ◽  
The Social ◽  
Military Security ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Military

The article is devoted to the study of the concept of war crime and analysis of its forensic characteristics. The study analyzed the concepts of crime, war crime and the probable reasons for their commission. It is determined that military service is an extremely important type of activity, as it is designed to ensure state security and protection of the state border of Ukraine. The main military formation in Ukraine is the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the procedure of which is determined by the relevant legislation, according to which the Armed Forces is an independent state and legal institution, a reflection of modern Ukrainian society, but with its specific demographic, organizational, social, psychological and legal features. It is established that any crime is a negative social phenomenon that poses a threat to both society and the state. The social danger of each crime is manifested in the task or the creation of the danger of causing significant harm to public relations: the interests of the individual, society, state, which are protected by criminal law. But in war crimes behind these relations are the interests of a higher order – the military security of the state: the state of combat capability of the Armed Forces, other military formations, the ability to perform tasks set by the state, and ultimately protect the country from possible military aggression. Any crime against military service undermines the combat capability of military units, as a consequence, causes significant damage to the combat capability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and, ultimately, to the military security of the state. Thus, the social danger of war crimes finds its expression in the task or in the creation of a threat of significant damage to the interests of military security of the state in the field of its defense and, therefore, is characterized by an increased degree of public danger. For Ukraine, in terms of the Operation joint forces, war crimes are extremely negative, as these are the factors that undermine combat readiness, military discipline and legal consciousness of the servicemen, creates the conditions for the loss of military personnel, military property, and therefore requires the authorities to use all necessary resources to fight and prevent the Commission of war crimes. Thus, the data on the person that has committed war crimes, as an element of criminalistic characteristics are of fundamental importance because they are a solid information base, which later during the establishment of corresponding co-dependent relationships will determine the other unknown elements of criminalistic characteristics.

scholarly journals Proverb as an Indicator of the Normative Behavior of the Armed Forces of Russia Officers

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 122-133
Author(s):  
Vitaliy Chernov ◽  
Dmitriy Perednya
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Professional Group ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
Social Realm ◽  
The One ◽  
External Stimuli

The purpose of the study is to understand the semantic constructions by which the Russian Armed Forces officers symbolize their attitude to social realm. For this purpose, they were asked to write their favorite proverb, to which they try to “correspond” in their behavior. The authors proceeded from the assumption that interiorized folklore type statements are life guidelines (social values) for representatives of this professional group and informal regulators of their life. The study made it possible to determine the “boundaries” of the proverbial worldview of Russian officers. Further, within the established boundaries, four groups of statements were obtained. The first is proverbs and sayings about labor, work; the second – about the reaction to external stimuli; the third is about human qualities, relationships during service, camaraderie, and interpersonal communication. The fourth is about corporatism and professional solidarity. The article describes the most significant fragments of professional military personnel’s dispositional worldview. Moreover, on the one hand, a desire to work, a willingness to endure the hardships of military service were revealed, on the other hand – a certain fatalism, a conviction that external conditions and circumstances may be insurmountable, but if you acted as the duty requires, then you are allowed not to worry about the consequences. Typical personality traits and the social identity of this professional group, recreated in the study, are determined by the peculiarities of military service, while being within the boundaries of universal human terminal values and have a constructive, solidarizing orientation.

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