Peter N. Stearns - Demilitarization in the Contemporary World
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Contemporary world history has highlighted militarization in many ways, from the global Cold War and numerous regional conflicts to the general assumption that nationhood implies a significant and growing military. Yet the twentieth century also offers notable examples of large-scale demilitarization, both imposed and voluntary. Demilitarization in the Contemporary World fills a key gap in current historical understanding by examining demilitarization programs in Germany, Japan, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.In nine insightful chapters, this volumes contributors outline each nations demilitarization choices and how they were made. They investigate factors such as military defeat, border security risks, economic pressures, and the development of strong peace cultures among citizenry. Also at center stage is the influence of the United States, which fills a paradoxical role as both an enabler of demilitarization and a leader in steadily accelerating militarization.Bookended by Peter N. Stearns thought-provoking historical introduction and forward-looking conclusion, the chapters in this volume explore what true demilitarization means and how it impacts a society at all levels, military and civilian, political and private. The examples chosen reveal that successful demilitarization must go beyond mere troop demobilization or arms reduction to generate significant political and even psychological shifts in the culture at large. Exemplifying the political difficulties of demilitarization in both its failures and successes, Demilitarization in the Contemporary World provides a possible roadmap for future policies and practices.
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Demilitarization in the Contemporary World
Demilitarization in the Contemporary World
Edited by
PETER N. STEARNS
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield
Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield
2013 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
C 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Demilitarization in the contemporary world / edited by Peter Stearns.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-252-03789-4 (hbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-252-09515-3 (e-book)
1. DisarmamentHistory20th century. 2. MilitarismHistory20th century. 3. Armed ForcesDemobilizationCase studies. 4. Security, InternationalCase studies. 5. World politics20th centuryCase studies. I. Stearns, Peter N., editor.
JZ5645.D46 2013
327.1'74dc23 2013010218
Demilitarization in the contemporary world / edited by Peter Stearns.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-252-03789-4 (hbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-252-09515-3 (e-book)
1. DisarmamentHistory20th century. 2. MilitarismHistory20th century. 3. Armed ForcesDemobilizationCase studies. 4. Security, InternationalCase studies. 5. World politics20th centuryCase studies. I. Stearns, Peter N., editor.
JZ5645.D46 2013
327.1'74dc23 2013010218
Contents
Peter N. Stearns
SECTION I: HISTORICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Andrew Bickford
Jay Lockenour
Holger Nehring
Yoneyuki Sugita
Glenn D. Hook
Christopher Hughes
Stephanie Trombley Averill
Kirk Bowman
Philip J. Williams and J. Mark Ruhl
Peter N. Stearns
Introduction
This book highlights an important set of developments over the past several decades, unusual in world history and operating against dominant trends in the decades since World War II. The focus is on societies that, for several reasons, have deliberately undertaken a program of demilitarization, with deep consequences in public and political culture as well as statecraft. The developments have occurred in decades dominated by the arms races of the Cold War and the assumption of most governments, new and old alike, that the logics of success and security called for more, not fewer, weapons. The fact thatadmittedly, for often special reasonsseveral key societies reached a dramatically different conclusion is significant in its own right and possibly of value to governments and publics that might wish to reconsider their current path.
In the late 1940s, Germany, Japan, and Costa Rica launched distinctive processes of demilitarization. The emphasis on process is vital: Japan and Germany were abruptly altered by loss in war and foreign occupation, but this only began a larger evolution toward distinctive political and cultural contexts for military policy. Costa Rica, again abruptly, proclaimed demilitarization in 1948, but here, too, this simply started a chain of developments, which ultimately affected other parts of Central America, toward figuring out what a redefinition of priorities would involve. And the story is ongoing, with new issues (particularly in Japan) and new influences shaping patterns even in the present day.
* * *
All wars have an aftermath. They dislocate populations and frequently jar economies. They often create challenges in the relationships between former soldiers and the societies around them. They frequently provoke postwar military and diplomatic maneuvering, to protect stability, to gain local advantage, or both. Often they lead at least a few individuals to give more thought to peace and to conditions that might promote peace.
Not surprisingly, large modern wars, more horrible than any of their predecessors, have provoked particularly interesting postwar peace efforts. World War I thus generated important movements, including outright pacifism. The failure of some of these initiatives helps explain a further set of innovations after World War IIthe context for the demilitarization programs that focus the following essays.
History tends to privilege war and war makers. Even when, as experts sometimes argue, not enough attention is given to actual military history, including the experiences and impacts of soldiers, attention rivets on leaders and political systems that successfully used force to expand states or build empires, whether the venue is a survey textbook, historical biography, or even, most recently, a history channel on television. Western standardsand it is valid to note that from Rome and particularly feudalism onward, the West has often been a warlike placefocus attention on the growth of armed states and call for special explanations for societies that begin to encounter military setbacks. Commitments to peace or innovations that seek peace usually seem off the beaten trackunless, of course, like the famous Pax Romana, they depend on a strong military infrastructure. Arguably, it will be a service to broader historical accuracy to think more about peace histories, even as the focus on the emergence of contemporary alternatives facilitates wider discussion of current policy options.
* * *
Exploring the history of explicit demilitarization raises two related issues, both of which provide context for the specific studies that follow in this volume. In the first place, demilitarization as a term can be validly applied to a number of patterns of changethere is no heroic single definition. Second, unsurprisingly, while contemporary demilitarization has some distinctive features, it links with and builds on earlier historical precedents of several types. Setting a modern stage for postWorld War II demilitarization is particularly important, but earlier precedents are worth consideration as well.
Demilitarization can refer simply to reducing the size of military budgets, personnel, and apparatus. It can also apply to reducing the role of the Changes of this sort can be legitimately captured as both significant and complex, involving a number of vital dimensions.
A special case of military reduction, though an important one, involves behaviors of combatants, particularly victorious combatants, after a major war. Almost always military forces of various sorts are reduced because the special needs of conflict have eased. All the victorious powers thus demobilized millions of troops after World War I while cutting back their armaments budgets as well. This process is so obvious and expected that the special term demilitarization is not always applied. It is also true that military reduction in these circumstances is not always accompanied by any significant rethinking of the military role more generally. But there are certainly cases where the term might usefully apply. Its worth remembering that when the Pentagon was successfully built to house the direction of the United States effort in World War II, there were many expectations that it could and would be converted to quite different purposes after the wars endthat is, the military buildup was seen as temporary, with its apparatus to be rethought later on. And initial reactions to victory, with massive and rapid American demilitarization, pointed in precisely that direction. Britains reduction of forces after World War II, under the aegis of the new Labour government, involved not just a recognition of the end of a major mobilization but the need to rethink government purposes toward a greater commitment to civilian welfare. Getting back to normal may not merit a demilitarization label, but sometimes the process goes further than usual.
Demilitarization in terms of political structure captures another variant of the larger concept, though of course it can combine with a process of reduction in scale. During the 1980s, Argentinawhere, compared to global standards, military expenditures were already actually rather low but the military had controlled the apparatus of governmentthus experienced a demilitarization process through the reduction of political influence and intervention in favor of civilian authorities. This was followed a decade later by a reduction in the levels of expenditure and personnel as greater interregional cooperation plus the new structure of political authority encouraged further rethinking, thus ultimately combining several aspects of demilitarization. But the initial process emphasized political role rather than size.
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