The Military and Liberal Society
This book describes to what extent and in what ways the military policies of Western European societies are determined by liberal ideology.
A wide variety of issues affected by liberal ideology, including conscription, conscientious objection, military mission, military ethics and the professional identity of soldiers are addressed in the book. The empirical analysis draws on the cases of the German Bundeswehr (from the 1950s onwards), the Swedish Armed Forces (the transformation after the end of the Cold War), and the British Armed Forces (from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards). The books examination of these cases reveals that specific policies, institutions and practices are preferred because of their relation to liberalism. Since Samuel Huntingtons seminal book The Soldier and the State the literature on civilmilitary relations and military sociology depicts the relationship between liberal ideology and military security as intrinsically antithetical. This book is conceived as a critical debate with Huntington. Contrary to the notion of antithetical societalmilitary relationship, this book demonstrates that a meaningful adaptation of the military to the principles possessed by its parent society can be, more often than not, desirable also from the perspective of security strategy.
This book will be of considerable interest to students of civilmilitary relations, military sociology, Western European politics, security studies and IR.
Tomas Kucera is Assistant Professor in the Department of Security Studies, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.
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The Military and Liberal Society
SocietalMilitary Relations in Western Europe
Tomas Kucera
First published 2018
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2018 Tomas Kucera
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ISBN: 978-1-138-65760-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62125-8 (ebk)
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Although writing a book is a rather solitary activity, this book would look different, or would not be at all, without the advice and support of many people and institutions who deserve my gratitude. First, thanks must be given to Aberystwyth Universitys Department of International Politics. This book greatly benefited from several years of vivid discussions with Professor Martin Alexander, Dr Kamila Stullerova, and Dr Berit Bliesemann de Guevara.
The case studies on the German Bundeswehr would be very different without the support of the Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut der Bundeswehr (SOWI) and the Helmut-Schmidt-Universitt/Universitt der Bundeswehr in Hamburg. Discussions with Dr Heiko Biehl and Dr Gerhard Kmmel at SOWI helped me to get direction at the beginning of my tour of the Bundeswehr and debates in Hamburg with Professor Bernd Wegner, Professor Elmar Wiesendahl and Oberstleutnant a.D. Dr Freiherr von Rosen reassured me that the direction was not completely wrong. Regarding Hamburg, however, my greatest gratitude belongs to Dr Michael Jonas without whom I would not have been able to visit this place at all and who spared no effort to make my stay a pleasant and memorable experience.
It is also important to mention the institutional support of the Institute of Political Studies at the Charles University which notably facilitated the writing of this book. Last, but not least, I must gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Czech Science Foundation under the standard research grant no. GA1602288S.