Militarization

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Militarization, or militarisation, is the process by which a society organizes itself for military conflict and violence. It is related to militarism, which is an ideology that reflects the level of militarization of a state. The process of militarization involves many interrelated aspects that encompass all levels of society.

Contents

Russian military build-up around Ukraine prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Russian forces near Ukraine, 2021-12-03 (crop).jpg
Russian military build-up around Ukraine prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

Geopolitical

The perceived level of threat influences what potential for violence or warfare the state must achieve to assure itself an acceptable level of security. When the perceived level of threat is low, as with Canada, a country may have a relatively small military and level of armament. However, in Israel, the threat of attack from neighbouring countries means that the armed forces and defense have a high profile and are given significant funding and personnel.

This threat may involve the:

Political

Militaristic ideas are referred to within civilian contexts. The War on Poverty declared by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and the War on drugs declared by President Richard Nixon, are rhetorical wars. They are not declared against a concrete, military enemy which can be defeated, but are symbolic of the amount of effort, sacrifice, and dedication which needs to be applied to the issue. They may also be a means of consolidating executive power, because war implies emergency powers for the executive branch which are normally reserved for the legislature. As well, politicians have invoked militaristic ideas with rhetorical wars on other social issues. Some governments draw on militaristic imagery when they appoint "task forces" of bureaucrats to address pressing political or social issues.

Economic

Militarization has been used as a strategy for boosting a state's economy, by creating jobs and increasing industrial production. This was part of Adolf Hitler's plan to revive the German economy after the devastation it suffered after the First World War.

Social

Increasingly, Christian evangelical prayer has taken on militaristic forms and language. [2] Spiritual warfare may involve forms of prayer spoken in militarized discourse. Its adherents, sometimes referring to themselves as "prayer warriors", wage "spiritual battle" on a "prayer battlefield". Spiritual warfare is the latest iteration in a long-standing partnership between religious organizations and militarization, two spheres that religion scholar Elizabeth A. McAlister argues are rarely considered together, although aggressive forms of prayer have long been used to further the aims of expanding Christian influence through a variety of conversion tactics. [2] These tactics have begun being articulated in militaristic imagery, using terms such as "enlist, rally, advance and blitz". Major moments of increased political militarization have occurred concurrently with the growth of prominence of militaristic imagery in many evangelical communities, such as the evangelical engagement in a militarized project of aggressive missionary expansion conducted against the backdrop of the Vietnam War in the 1970s. [2]

Gender

The military also has a role in defining gender identities. War movies (i.e. Rambo) associate the cultural identities of masculinity with warriors. [3] Representations of Vietnam in popular culture display the male body as a weapon of war and contribute to ideals of masculinity in American culture. [4] [5] Military prowess has been crucial to understandings of contemporary masculinity in European and American culture. [6] During World War I, soldiers who experienced shell-shock were seen[ by whom? ] as failures of masculinity, unable to withstand war as the ultimate task of manliness. [7] The maintenance of military systems relies on ideas about men and manliness as well as ideas about women and femininity, including notions of fallen women and patriotic motherhood. [8]

Women have been mobilized during times of war to perform tasks seen as incompatible with men's roles in combat, including cooking, laundry, and nursing. [8] Women have also been seen as necessary for servicing male soldiers' sexual needs through prostitution. [8] For example, during the Vietnam War, Vietnamese women who worked as prostitutes were allowed on US bases as local national Jabaits. [8]

Civil–military relations

The role and image of the military within a society is another aspect of militarization. At differing times and places in history, soldiers have been viewed as respectable, honoured individuals (for example, this was the reputation of Allied soldiers who liberated the Nazi-occupied Netherlands in WWII, or the view of Americans and Canadians who placed support our troops car-magnets on their vehicles during the war on terror). Military figures can become heroes (for example, the Finnish people's view of the Finnish sniper nicknamed "White Death", who killed many Russian invaders). Alternatively, one can brand soldiers as "baby killers" (as a few U.S. anti-war activists did during and after the Vietnam War) or as war criminals (the Nazi leaders and SS units responsible for the Holocaust).

Structural organization is another process of militarization. Before World War II (1939–1945), the United States experienced a post-war reduction of forces after major conflicts, reflecting American suspicion of large standing armies. After World War II, not only was the army maintained, but the National Security Act of 1947 restructured both civilian and military leadership structures, establishing the Department of Defense and the National Security Council. The Act also created permanent intelligence structures (the CIA et al.) within the United States government for the first time, reflecting the civilian government's perception of a need for previously military-based intelligence to be incorporated into the structure of the civilian state.

Ex-soldiers entering business or politics may import military mindsets and jargon into their new environments – thus there is the popularity of advertising campaigns, sales break-throughs and election victories (even if Pyrrhic ones).

How citizenship is tied to military service plays an important role in establishing civil–military relations. Countries with volunteer-based military service have a different mindset from those with universal conscription. In some countries, men must have served with the military to be considered citizens.[ citation needed ] Compare historical Prussia (where every male was required to serve, and service was a requirement of citizenship[ citation needed ]) to post-Vietnam America's all-volunteer army. In 2016 in Israel, military service is mandatory. This develops a society where almost all people have served in the armed forces. [9]

Race

Racial interactions between society and the military:

Eleanor Roosevelt said "civil rights [is] an international question. . . [that] may decide whether Democracy or Communism wins out in the world." [11] and this sort of false dichotomy was continued further throughout the McCarthy era and the Cold War in general.

Class

The military also serves as a means of social restructuring. Lower classes could gain status and mobility within the military, at least after levée en masse after the French Revolution. Also, the officer corps became open to the middle class, although it was once reserved only for nobility. In Britain, becoming a military officer was an expectation for 'second sons' who were to gain no inheritance; the role of officer was assumed to maintain their noble class. In the United States, military service has been/is advertised as a means for lower-class people to receive training and experience that they would not normally receive, propelling them to higher incomes and higher positions in society. Joining the military has enabled many people from lower socioeconomic demographics to receive college education and training. As well, a number of positions in the military involve transferable skills that can be used in the regular labor market after an individual is discharged (e.g., pilot, air traffic controller, mechanic).

Police

Police SWAT team members, some armed with assault rifles, prepare for an exercise. SWAT team prepared (4132135578).jpg
Police SWAT team members, some armed with assault rifles, prepare for an exercise.

The militarization of police involves the use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement officers. This includes the use of armored personnel carriers, assault rifles, submachine guns, flashbang grenades, [12] [13] grenade launchers, [14] sniper rifles, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams. [15] [16] The militarization of law enforcement is also associated with intelligence agency-style information gathering aimed at the public and political activists, [17] [18] and a more aggressive style of law enforcement. [19] [20] Criminal justice professor Peter Kraska has defined militarization of law enforcement as "the process whereby civilian police increasingly draw from, and pattern themselves around, the tenets of militarism and the military model." [21]

Observers have noted the militarizing of the policing of protests. [22] [23] Since the 1970s, riot police have fired at protesters using guns with rubber bullets or plastic bullets. [24] Tear gas, which was developed for riot control in 1919, is widely used against protesters in the 2000s. The use of tear gas in warfare is prohibited by various international treaties [25] that most states have signed; however, its law enforcement or military use for domestic or non-combat situations is permitted.

Concerns about the militarization of police have been raised by both ends of the political spectrum in the United States, with both the right-of-center/libertarian Cato Institute and the left-of-center American Civil Liberties Union voicing criticisms of the practice. The Fraternal Order of Police has spoken out in favor of equipping law enforcement officers with military equipment, on the grounds that it increases the officers' safety and enables them to protect civilians.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military</span> Organization primarily tasked with preparing for and conducting war

A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a distinct military uniform. They may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of a military is usually defined as defence of their state and its interests against external armed threats.

A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force nor a person engaged in hostilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SWAT</span> American law enforcement unit

In the United States, a SWAT team is a generic term for a police tactical unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paramilitary</span> Organization similar to, but not part of, a military

A paramilitary is a military that is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Army of the Republic of Vietnam</span> Defunct South Vietnamese ground forces

The Army of the Republic of Vietnam composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. At the ARVN's peak, an estimated 1 in 9 citizens of South Vietnam were enlisted, composed of Regular Forces and the more voluntary Regional Forces and the Popular Force militias. It is estimated to have suffered 1,394,000 casualties during the Vietnam War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fragging</span> Deliberate killing or attempted killing of a soldier by a fellow soldier

Fragging is the deliberate or attempted killing of a soldier, usually a superior, by a fellow soldier. U.S. military personnel coined the word during the Vietnam War, when such killings were most often committed or attempted with a fragmentation grenade, to make it appear that the killing was accidental or during combat with the enemy. The term fragging now encompasses any deliberate killing of military colleagues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Militarism</span> National reliance on a strong military

Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the military and of the ideals of a professional military class and the "predominance of the armed forces in the administration or policy of the state".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military police</span> Police organization part of the military of a state

Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear reconnaissance, logistic traffic management, counterinsurgency, and detainee handling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Close-quarters battle</span> Physical combat at close range

Close-quarters battle (CQB), also called close-quarters combat (CQC), is a close combat situation between multiple combatants involving ranged or melee combat. It can occur between military units, law enforcement and criminal elements, and in other similar situations. CQB is typically defined as a short duration, high intensity conflict characterized by sudden violence at close range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenix Program</span> CIA-led effort to eliminate the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War

The Phoenix Program was designed and initially coordinated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Vietnam War, involving the American, South Vietnamese militaries, and a small amount of Special forces operatives from the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. In 1970, CIA responsibility was phased out, and the program was put under the authority of the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riot police</span> Police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests, or riots

Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civil control of the military</span> Doctrine concerning civil authority over military decisions

Civil control of the military is a doctrine in military and political science that places ultimate responsibility for a country's strategic decision-making in the hands of the state's civil authority, rather than completely with professional military leadership itself. As such, a "fundamental requirement of any nation is to ensure that the activities of its armed forces are subordinated to the political purposes of constitutional government; hence, the armed forces must be under civil control". The concept of civil control falls within the overarching concept of civil-military relations representing the "societal imperative that the military remain subordinate to civil authority and that it reflect, to an appropriate degree, societal values and norms".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military Police Corps (United States)</span> U.S. Armys branch for military police

The United States Army Military Police Corps (USAMPC) is the uniformed law enforcement branch of the United States Army. Investigations are conducted by Military Police Investigators under the Provost Marshal General's Office or Special Agents of the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cynthia Enloe</span> American feminist writer, theorist, and professor (born 1938)

Cynthia Holden Enloe is an American political theorist, feminist writer, and professor. She is best known for her work on gender and militarism and for her contributions to the field of feminist international relations. She has also influenced the field of feminist political geography, with feminist geopolitics in particular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Provost (military police)</span> Military police who only police within the armed forces

Provosts are military police (MP) whose duties are policing solely within the armed forces of a country, as opposed to gendarmerie duties in the civilian population. However, many countries use their gendarmerie for provost duties.

<i>Total Resistance</i> (book) Guerilla warfare manual by Hans von Dach, 1957

Total Resistance, originally published in German as Der totale Widerstand: Eine Kleinkriegsanleitung für Jedermann is a seven-volume guerilla warfare manual.

United States Department of Defense, and associated, civil affairs are civil-military operations (CMO) use of military force to control areas seized from the enemy, minimize insurgency or civil interference with military operations, and maximize civil support for military operations. CMO is conducted in conjunction with combat operations during wartime and becomes a central part of a military campaign in counter-insurgencies. CMO operations have been in frequent use since 1775 by the United States Army, as well as more recently by the Navy and Marine Corps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civil–military relations</span> Study of the relationship between a countrys armed forces and civil society/government

Civil–military relations describes the relationship between military organizations and civil society, military organizations and other government bureaucracies, and leaders and the military. CMR incorporates a diverse, often normative field, which moves within and across management, social science and policy scales. More narrowly, it describes the relationship between the civil authority of a given society and its military authority. "The goal of any state is to harness military professional power to serve vital national security interests, while guarding against the misuse of power that can threaten the well-being of its people." Studies of civil-military relations often rest on a normative assumption that it is preferable to have the ultimate responsibility for a country's strategic decision-making to lie in the hands of the civilian political leadership rather than a military.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Militarization of police</span> Law enforcement using combat methods

The militarization of police is the use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement officers. This includes the use of armored personnel carriers (APCs), assault rifles, submachine guns, flashbang grenades, sniper rifles, and SWAT teams. The militarization of law enforcement is also associated with intelligence agency–style information gathering aimed at the public and political activists and with a more aggressive style of law enforcement. Criminal justice professor Peter Kraska has defined militarization of police as "the process whereby civilian police increasingly draw from, and pattern themselves around, the tenets of militarism and the military model".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GI Underground Press</span> Military press produced without official approval or acceptance during the Vietnam War

The GI Underground Press was an underground press movement that emerged among the United States military during the Vietnam War. These were newspapers and newsletters produced without official military approval or acceptance; often furtively distributed under the eyes of "the brass". They were overwhelmingly antiwar and most were anti-military, which tended to infuriate the military command and often resulted in swift retaliation and punishment. Mainly written by rank-and-file active duty or recently discharged GIs, AWOLs and deserters, these publications were intended for their peers and spoke the language and aired the complaints of their audience. They became an integral and powerful element of the larger antiwar, radical and revolutionary movements during those years. This is a history largely ignored and even hidden in the retelling of the U.S. military's role in the Vietnam War.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Lotchin 2002, Chapter 1.
  2. 1 2 3 McAlister, Elizabeth (2016-01-02). "The militarization of prayer in America: White and Native American spiritual warfare". Journal of Religious and Political Practice. 2 (1): 114–130. doi: 10.1080/20566093.2016.1085239 . ISSN   2056-6093.
  3. ↑ Gibson, James William: Warrior Dreams: Paramilitary Culture in Post-Vietnam America, Hill & Wang, 1994. ISBN 0-8090-1578-1
  4. ↑ Jeffords, Susan (1989). Remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN   9780253331885.
  5. ↑ de Pauw, Linda (2000). Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN   9780806132884.
  6. ↑ Connell, R.W. (2005). Masculinities. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN   9780520246980.
  7. ↑ Mosse, George (2000). "Shell-shock as a social disease". Journal of Contemporary History. 35: 101–108. doi:10.1177/002200940003500109. S2CID   145299126.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Enloe, Cynthia (2000). Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. pp. xiii–xiv. ISBN   9780520220713.
  9. ↑ See also Frevert, 2004, Ch. 1.4, 1.5.
  10. ↑ Frevert 2004, pp. 65–69.
  11. ↑ Sherry 1995, p. 146.
  12. ↑ "SAS - Weapons - Flash Bang | Stun Grenade (The British Army's SAS developed flashbang grenades)". Eliteukforces.info. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
  13. ↑ The flash from a flashbang grenade detonation momentarily activates all photoreceptor cells in the eye, making vision impossible for approximately five seconds, until the eye restores itself to its normal, unstimulated state. The loud blast is meant to cause temporary loss of hearing, and also disturbs the fluid in the ear, causing loss of balance. The concussive blast of the detonation can still injure, and the heat created can ignite flammable materials.
  14. ↑ Texas Rangers, Department of Public Safety, Branch Davidian Evidence, Investigative Report No. 1, September 1999; Investigative Report No. 2, January 2000 (PDFs available at Texas Rangers website). The Rangers found that the FBI used grenade launchers to fire two 40 mm M651 grenades. The Army considers the M651 a pyrotechnic device and that it is known to cause fires. The Army Tech Manual for the M651 warns that it can penetrate 3/4" plywood at 200 meters and "projectile may explode upon target impact." During inventory of the Waco evidence the Texas Rangers also found flashbang grenades.
  15. ↑ James Joyner (June 15, 2011). "Militarization of Police". Outside the Beltway.
  16. ↑ Paul D. Shinkman (August 14, 2014). "Ferguson and the Militarization of Police". U.S. News & World Report.
  17. ↑ Michael German (December 18, 2014). "Why Police Spying On Americans Is Everyone's Problem". Defense One.
  18. ↑ Josh Peterson (March 25, 2014). "State lawmakers push to rein in police spying". Fox News Channel.
  19. ↑ Ryan Van Velzer (June 24, 2014). "ACLU: Free military weapons making Arizona police more aggressive". The Arizona Republic.
  20. ↑ Jodie Gummow (August 29, 2013). "11 over-the-top U.S. police raids that victimized innocents". Salon.
  21. ↑ GLENN GREENWALD (August 14, 2014). "THE MILITARIZATION OF U.S. POLICE: FINALLY DRAGGED INTO THE LIGHT BY THE HORRORS OF FERGUSON". The Intercept.
  22. ↑ "press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo21636470.html". Archived from the original on 2016-05-10. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
  23. ↑ "Congress scrutinizes police militarization before planned Ferguson protest".
  24. ↑ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plastic+bullet "A solid PVC cylinder, 10 cm long and 38 mm in diameter, fired by police or military forces to regain control in riots."
  25. ↑ e.g. the Geneva Protocol of 1925: 'Prohibited the use of "asphyxiating gas, or any other kind of gas, liquids, substances or similar materials"'

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