Where does theory go in military history?

This article presents a critique of Whiggish approaches to military history. It begins with this quotation from Dennis Showalter – ‘military history is arguably the last stronghold of what historiographers call the “Whig interpretation”’ – and notes that Showalter’s assessment was a reflection on both the general absence of theory and the linked poverty of the fallback theoretical basket of the subject, with such staples as War and Society, Face of Battle, and Military Revolutions. Recognizing the shortcomings of numerous approaches to military history, the author identifies the challenge – writing military history that incorporates multiple regions and takes a global approach. As the author concludes, the problem for the historian remains how best to address the complex interactions of, in particular, change and continuity, structure and conjuncture, the West and the wider world, and to do so to produce an account that is able to identify and probe crucial issues and key questions.

The military-technical revolution of the ХХI st century (Philosophical and analytical review)

The article discusses the history of the military-technical revolution, revealing its main characteristics. It was interesting to explain to others theconnection between the revolution and the technical and technological structure ofsociety, on the one hand, and the changes in modern warfare, its timing, the scale of the deployment of hostilities, on the other hand. The study is based on the methodology of systems analysis, as well as the use of logical generalization, synthesis, and abstraction. The authors rely on a wide range of illustrative material, which allowed to show the changes of the sixth military-technological revolution. The nature of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in modern warfare is considered factual material. Based on specific material, it is argued that the nature of modern warfare is hybrid in nature, but this hybridization itself is heterogeneous. Possible options for waging war and using certain equipment are shown. Based on analytical research, the authors focused on the transformation’s characteristic of modern wars. It is concluded that there is a transition period between the sixth and seventh technical-military revolutions that demand future interdisciplinary research.

Technological Determinism(s) and the Study of War

The concept of technological determinism has been a mainstay of discussions in history of technology and especially in science and technology studies (sts) for about half a century, yet military history as a field has generally sidestepped the idea as a category of analysis. Military historians, however, would do well to consider some of the insights from these other fields, for they can fall prey to (tacitly) deterministic analyses. Although the emphasis on tactical and strategic factors, as well as leadership and soldiers’ experience, sometimes insulates technological explanations from appearing to be causal, a casual reading of both military history and contemporary military policy seems to show that warfighters and political leaders often see technology as transformative. This is all the more evident in the discussion of military revolutions and especially revolutions in military affairs (RMAs), where technology is a least a leg of the stool, and at “best” a transformative agent.

Revolutionary Waves of the Twentieth Century: “The Red Wave” in Asia, 1940–1970

The study examines revolutionary waves – the process of spreading protest activity from one society to another. The author reveals the specifics and analyzes the nature of relations within the “red wave” in post-war Asia in the 40s – 70s of the twentieth century. The paper explains the structural, ideological and organizational relationship between these revolutions (uprising, partisan wars) using the world system analysis, demographic and structural theory, the theory of military revolutions, and the neo-Marxist model of B. Moore. These approaches helped to explain the authoritarian, dirigiste an egalitarian Asian “wave”, and also highlighted two ideologically and organizationally separate “waves”.

Najstarsze północnoamerykańskie artykuły wojskowe

This paper analyses from historical and legal points of view, military articles enacted for militias stationed in the colonies of Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maryland. All the studied articles were drafted by selecting legal norms from model military articles and introducing minor stylistic changes. Colonists from Virginia took advantage of Sweden’s Gustav II Adolph’s articles of 1621, those from Massachusetts – articles drafted for the Parliamentarian Army by Robert Devereux in 1642 while in Maryland, Prince Rupert’s Articles of 1672 served as a model. The example of Connecticut shows that once a version of regulations for militias had been published, it was eagerly copied by neighbouring colonies. Curiously enough – an observation that has not been made in the literature so far – the Swedish military regulations of Gustav II Adolph were made use of outside Europe. This only bears out the claim that military expertise fl owed freely in the times of ‘military revolutions’. A new type of source concerning military law, namely militia articles, needs to be distinguished; one marked by conciseness, for it only laid down absolutely necessary regulations that could be enforced in ad hoc formed militias.

4. Technological change

‘Technological change’ presents three perspectives on the nature of change in military technology: research and development, dual-use technologies, and military revolutions. World War II ushered in two momentous transformations in the world’s relationship with military technology: the nuclear revolution and modern, institutionalized, routinized research and development. Non-weapons dual-use technologies include fortifications, roads, steam engines, the internal combustion engine, electric and electronic communication, and computers. Weapons dual-use technologies include the Schöningen spear, the bow and arrow, the chariot, nuclear power, explosives, and automatic firearms. Military revolutions have been divided into two arcs of analysis: the role of military revolutions in history and the revolution in military affairs.