Advances in Military Sociology: Essays in Honor of Charles C. Moskos: Volume 12 Part 1

I first met Charles C. Moskos back in 1983, at the first international conference in which I had the fortune to participate, and, since my history of relations with him parallels those of many colleagues and friends who study the military and who, like me, remember him, it seems worthwhile to introduce these studies in his honour with a personal recollection.

This two-volume book was prepared in the memory of Charles C. Moskos, a distinguished military sociologist. He addressed the role of military and their families in international and domestic conflicts. Military is an important part of conflict and war, and its role has changed distinctly over the years due to development of technology and present day politico-social contexts. In recent years, there have been very few international conflicts. Most of the conflicts are domestic where countries or coalitions of countries are often involved to save their interest, combat terrorism, and keep world peace. A new form of war, namely asymmetric warfare, has developed. Traditional armies are not prepared for this. Peacekeeping and peacemaking by international organizations like United Nations have become the rule. The attitude of the soldiers themselves has also changed. They are questioning authority more. Protests over civilian casualty and torture are being raised. The establishment of the International Court of Justice has led to many controversies amongst nations. The role of military cannot be discussed at global levels exclusively. Regional war and the role of the military in Asia, for example, is a topic of its own. Women in military and wives of the military play important but sometimes difficult roles. The value of these two books lies in the contributions of scholars living in different countries with drastically different socioeconomic conditions to come up with a generalization sought by Charles C. Moskos.

It is fitting that this collection of essays on military sociology is dedicated to the memory of Charles Moskos – “Charlie” to all who knew him. He knew many of these contributors both personally and professionally and given the opportunity, he would have come to know all of them. Throughout his career, he sought to understand sociological trends in the U.S. military and in other armed forces around the world and to foster a continuous exchange of knowledge among military sociologists.

I would like to make three main points in this chapter. First, although the world is shrinking in some ways, it is not becoming homogeneous. Second, the profession of arms and the life of the mind are not incompatible, and sometimes coexist in the same individual. Third, challenges, old and new, require the closest possible cooperation among all elements of societies that wish to remain humane and uphold the values of human dignity and personal freedom.

The paper examines two discourses of bereavement that crystallized simultaneously in Israel as the third millennium began. One is “the economic discourse of bereavement,” with which official organizations dealing with bereavement sought to “free themselves” from the state's directives on entitlement to compensation. Army widows argued that compensation should not depend on their refraining from remarriage, while bereaved parents demanded it would not be contingent on a means test. They urge for liberation from “role demands” and for presenting entitlement to compensation as entitlement to personal rehabilitation, without using it to support pro-establishment behavior or unending interactions with establishment supervision. Those claims express the linkage of bereavement to globalization and individuation, and the desire to rebel against the republican equation conditioning entitlement to welfare on “proper” establishment-compliant behavior. A second discourse is the “hierarchy of bereavement discourse” – which was placed on the agenda together with the first one, and by the same organizations. Unlike the economic discourse, this one acted to replicate the monopoly held by families of IDF dead in the Israeli pantheon, with attempts to bring into it a group of families of civilian bereavement (families of terror victims). The discourse relies on purely republican underpinnings, complying with the spirit of the local–national period. Exploring the two discourses, that were promoted simultaneously by the same agents, assists an analysis of the Israeli discourse of bereavement that results in its definition as “glocal.” This transpires from a review of the literature showing that – even in the face of globalization processes – national–local foundations remained stable. The paper first engages with the concept of glocalization, the ethos of republican citizenship, and, as a facet of it, the identification of social policy as an agent of the social hierarchy, as well as changes in citizenship during globalization. The second section reviews the status of bereaved families, and the central discourses they have promoted in Israeli society. The third and major part contains an analysis of both discourses – the economic discourse of bereavement, and the hierarchy of bereavement discourse. Finally, we attempt to analyze and explain how apparently antithetical discourses took shape in tandem, drawing on the term “glocalism” and the impact of citizenship models.

This paper explores selected interdisciplinary literature on peace. It examines the notion of peace from several perspectives. First, it compares some theoretical discussions on peace, contrasting Tagore and Gandhi with the contemporary writings of Amrtya Sen and Lederach. Second, it examines notions of peace proposed by women's groups. Third, it examines notions of peace emanating from the efforts taken after prolonged conflicts, such as Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and humanitarian efforts. Fourth, it looks at peace through art. This paper compares the contributions of these approaches toward developing a multilevel, holistic concept of building and sustaining peace.

This paper aims to do three things. The first is to present some core aspects of my approach to globalization, humiliation (or ‘outrageous’ displacement) and conflict. The second is to compare my own approach to displacement cycles and conflict with Randall Collins's approach to interaction ritual chains and violence. The third is to see if there is any prospect that a ‘conversation’ between the two approaches might advance our understanding of the triangular relationship between conflict, violence and humiliation. The essence of peacemaking is not the elimination of conflict but the eradication, to the greatest possible degree, of violence and humiliation.

There are two critical steps involved in reducing enmity between two nations and transforming their relationship into one of mutual accommodation and ultimately even friendship. The first step is finding a way to break through the wall of mutual hostility and suspicion. That depends primarily on communication. Since messages are more powerfully and credibly communicated when they are carried by behavior as well as words, the Graduated Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction (GRIT) strategy is offered as a possible path to achieving this breakthrough. The second step is creating and cementing friendship by building strong positive ties. That depends on creating a system of properly structured economic relationships.

There is a longstanding debate as to whether economic relationships build peace or provoke war. But it is not simply the existence or the extent of economic relationships that is key to their impact – it is the character of these relationships. Economic relationships that are balanced and mutually beneficial create strong positive incentives to settle or manage conflicts short of violence while economic relationships that are unbalanced and exploitative produce hostility and create incentives for violent disruption.

If two nations that have long been enemies can begin to build peace, establishing a widening and deepening web of balanced, mutually beneficial economic relationships between them can support that peacebuilding process, strengthen it, and make it sustainable into the indefinite future. This paper defines and explores the aspects of balance that are most critical to creating peacebuilding economic relationships, as well as their connection to both economic development programs and environmental quality.

The amnesty, reconciliation, and reintegration (AR2) process in a fractured and fragmented society may require assistance from the security sector to become fully operational. This article develops a framework for how such assistance may be implemented, based on current and developing US military operational doctrines and national security documents. It considers briefly the implementation of such principles via a discussion of the AR2 process in Northern Ireland.

Since the end of the Cold War, armed forces have been busier than ever before. This necessarily led to an increase in cooperation between national armed forces. It also produced cultural and political challenges, which influence both the success and the effectiveness of military operations abroad.

In this respect, the views of military personnel regarding the advantages and pitfalls in multinational missions may be of interest to us. In an attempt to provide answers to these questions, nine high-ranking officers from European countries were interviewed during a course at the NATO Defense College in Rome in late January 2007.

A unique regional scenario marked by a low probability of interstate-armed conflicts and the commitment to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has been a good framework for the success of measures like peaceful solutions to controversies, economic cooperation, foreign affairs agreements and mutual confidence measures in the defense arena. At the same time, it has also redefined Latin American military organizations. The strategic planning of the armed forces through the conflict hypothesis pattern has been replaced by the hypothesis of convergence. Therefore, the focus has gone from deterrence to the development of capacities, among which are the peacekeeping capacities that became a priority for many countries of the region. In this sense, the aim of the article is to analyze the participation of Latin America in peacekeeping operations, in order to propose as a final point an ideal type of a Latin American peacekeeper.

The article is focused on three main issues. First, it presents a short overview of Polish armed forces’ engagement in peacekeeping operations in Asia and Africa. This is followed by a discussion on the positive and negative outcomes and consequences of mission participation for the soldiers, with a special emphasis on their professional and interpersonal skills, intercultural experience and social relations. Finally, the chapter highlights the experience of the Polish army's peacekeeping missions as an important factor of change, which influences military institutions and its personnel in Poland. The participation in missions seems to be an important event in soldiers’ professional career, seen as a kind of verification of previously learned skills and abilities. It might influence future career path, would be a reservoir for new practices and knowledge for the military institutions, and might show their weak points. Presented data are based on official information of Ministry of National Defense of Poland as well as on surveys conducted in the years 2004, 2006 and 2008 on a random sample of around 500 Polish soldiers, each done in Military Office for Social Research, Poland.

This study attempts to introduce South Korea's unique experiences of civic operations made in Iraq and Lebanon. Koreans approached it with extreme caution since they are seeing through two different lenses: “paying back syndrome” from the Korean War experiences is colliding with the “Vietnam syndrome” from the experiences of Vietnam War. Expanding its regional role through revitalizing PKOs is not an easy job for the ROK government despite the fact that President Lee has committed himself to increase its efforts since his campaign days. South Korea recently decided to send its KDX-II type destroyer to Somalia for joining the maritime peacekeeping while people in Korea strongly suspect that the Obama administration would soon request to send its troops to Afghanistan as a part of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). As the Korean society is getting democratized, progressive NGOs have been opposing the government decision to send forces to assist the U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It remains to be seen how President Lee persuades people to bear the burden and endure sacrifices. At least, four problems need to be addressed for Korea to become a major troop-contributing country (TCC): first, Korea needs to enact laws to deal with South Korea's participation in the UN PKOs. Second, Korea needs to find a way to include civilian experts in future activities of UN PKOs. Third, it needs to increase the budget and size of standby forces. Lastly, it needs to educate people to understand why Korea has to contribute further to make a safer world. It remains to be seen whether South Korea will continue to focus on its stabilization and reconstruction efforts without sending its combat troops.

Hungary has been part of NATO's peacekeeping project in Afghanistan since 2003 and currently has more than 240 soldiers in the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO's first mission outside the Euro-Atlantic area. Hungary officially took over the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Baghlan Province from October 2006, and currently we have the 5th rotation of the Hungarian PRT in Afghanistan. The Hungarian unit serves in conjunction with representatives of several other nations.

Hungarian participation in NATO's UN-mandated peace support operation in Afghanistan has raised many questions not only in the field of operations, but also at home (mainly in the context of civil–military relations). Many of the Hungarian PRT-related challenges seem to be connected to the difficulties of proper management of civil–military interface, civil–military partnership and cooperation process, and financial backing of the mission.

Well-coordinated, multidimensional proactive and reactive responses to the conflict, and a comprehensive security sector transformation and reform can be vital to consolidate peaceful relations in Afghanistan; may help to win the “hearts and minds” of the local population; can help to establish security and provide improvement to Bahlan province; and might contribute to the success of the whole peacekeeping and post-conflict peace-building process in Afghanistan.

Greece during and after World War II successively tried to rid itself from foreign (Italian and German) and communist influence. In its fight for independence, it was aided by the United Kingdom and the United States, but after World War II the communist threat, Greece being on the border to the communist sphere of influence, remained eminent. Therefore, Greece had to demonstrate solidarity and had to militarily participate in the alliance against communism around the world, that is, in North Korea. Greece formed a “Special Expeditionary Force” (GEF), involving ground and air forces. A special branch of high commanding officers, under a senior officer, was formed to play the role of liaison officer to the UN General Command Headquarters (GCHQs) for the Far East based in Tokyo-Japan. The Greek participation in the Korean War was highly recognized by the South Koreans as well as by the allied forces and the United Nations. Participating allies acknowledge and appreciate the valor, bravery, self-sacrifice, and resourcefulness of the Greek soldiers and officers.

The European Union (EU) is commonly, and vaguely, labelled as a sui generis foreign policy actor. The European Security Strategy (2003) advances, in an imprecise manner, the possible use of ‘robust’ responses to international challenges, when needed. The military dimension of the EU has to be found in its evolving but still incipient Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)/European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Since the launch of ESDP and its first missions in 2003, the EU has been able to conduct a noticeable progress on two fronts. On the one hand, it enhances internal capabilities for crisis management; on the other hand, it favours the principle of participation of third countries in missions. The present analysis considers EU international military cooperation in a strategic neighbourhood: Eastern Europe. We take into account the EU necessity to rely on relevant non-EU players to launch missions. We argue that ESDP missions' success depends not only on these external actors, namely on the consideration of power gaps, but also on domestic EU constraints. We explore the causes of poor cooperation with Russia on ESDP and the perspectives for crisis management in Europe. Considering ESDP activities in Eastern Europe, we conclude that the balance between civilian and military tools is not adequate to engage more seriously with Russia towards the stabilisation of the ‘common’ neighbourhood.

This section deals with asymmetric warfare and its nature as well as the issues that it creates. The reason for devoting such a large part of the Seoul conference and of these proceedings to this type of warfare derives from the fact that it has changed many rules of the game of conflict.

This change has imposed a profound transformation on the military, not only tactical but also structural, preparatory and mental.

The commitment to adaptation, to change, to the broadening of mentalities and horizons that asymmetric warfare requires of the military today thus motivates the plurality – and also the heterogeneity – of the studies presented in the chapters of this section.

Military organizations participating in current expeditionary missions face new challenge associated with dilemmas common to asymmetric warfare. Apart from dilemmas faced by local government, populations, and organizations, military organizations struggle with their task environment, performance, and main and supportive processes. Complementing doctrinal innovations in this area, the chapter proposes a generic model linking these processes to value creation, and it examines specific changes introduced by asymmetric warfare. Notable changes include the increasingly dialectic, constructivist, and discordant nature of organizational processes. Moreover, asymmetric warfare challenges singular definitions of military organizations' and their members' professional identity, and demands ongoing, in-depth learning.

Afghanistan is without a doubt one of the poorest countries in the world and it has all the characteristics of a failed state. In such a country, where there is neither a physical nor an economic infrastructure of any significance, the payment of salaries is an overwhelming problem for government organisations. The international community is providing advisers and trainers for Afghan government organisations, including the armed forces, in order to combat these kinds of problems. This article focuses on how the payment of salaries is organised within the 205th Corps of the Afghan National Army and ascertains if there are proper ways for a developing army to adopt Western ideas on financial and general management. Our research indicates that the payment and accountability ideas within the 205th Corps are fully in line with the processes in any Western armed forces or government organisation. Only when matters literally fall beyond the scope of the West-dominated organisation and payments are to be made in the outlying areas, uncertainties arise which can lead to questions and even friction. Furthermore, specific focal points derived from our literature review and our study are the concept of recording a number of basic details and keeping the disclosure relatively limited, and adapted to local needs.

The U.S. military is designed to take on a similarly constructed foreign military located across some line of demarcation. The goal of such conventional warfare is to incapacitate or annihilate the enemy military, whereupon victory is achieved – a task for which the U.S. military has no peer on the current world scene or the foreseeable future. However, the U.S.'s adversaries since the end of the Cold War have not been conventional forces, as evidenced most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. Consequently, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps recently have become volcanoes of change in order to adapt their operational styles to this reality. In the past, departures from the conventional mode in similar circumstances have been temporary. Currently, there is considerable discussion in the U.S. defense establishment about how persistent these types of nonconventional threats are likely to be in the future and whether it is necessary to change the configuration of the U.S. military accordingly. A centerpiece of this discussion is a new Counterinsurgency (COIN) Field Manual 3-24 addressing issues related to the postures the military and support establishments may take. This paper discusses some events prior to the writing of the new COIN Manual, comments on issues raised by the Manual and its doctrine, and offers some social science implications for thinking about and implementing the doctrine.

In this chapter, we focus on the processes of communication during peace missions in far-away countries, where local people in general do not master Western languages such as English and French. Afghanistan is such a country where the international community conducts large-scale peace operations that bring along many situations in which the military needs to talk to local people. In such situations, interpreters mastering the local languages (Darsi and Pasthtu) are needed. In our study, we focus on their work, how they think they should fulfil their task, and their relation between the military who hire them and the local people to which they in fact belong. This in-between position makes them strangers in their own country. Goffman's work on strategic interaction, the management of face and embarrassment as well as interaction rituals in general constitute the theoretical backbone of this study.

Preparing forces and their allies to operate in a world where asymmetry appears to be the only logical option for adversaries will require some significant and innovative adaptations to training and education methods. New models in leadership, selection, training, and education of leaders and troops are necessary to cope with complexity, non-predictability in conflict solving, and peace support operations. Multidimensional thinking and acting in military decision-making and applying new learning models to build up a climate of change and innovation on all levels of the armed forces is necessary. Organizational learning models, already applied in reshaping civil enterprises, are also useful in restructuring military forces and prepare them for the new challenges. T. Edmunds argues that the emerging new roles of the military cannot only be derived from an “objective functional reassessment” of the nature of new threats but are emerging, rather, as “a consequence of domestic and international socio-political influences that shape state’ perception of what their Armed Forces should look like and the purposes they should serve.” There is a higher priority for intercultural competences for leaders of all levels of responsibility, especially regarding the operational regions of the future and the globalized outcomes of conflicts in general. Research in this domain shows that methods of “face work” are best accomplished by Ting-Toomey's “identity negotiation.” Reshaping, restructuring, and preparing for new core rolls of the military and civil task forces are only to master when the responsible leaders manage to overcome the so-called “blind spot in leadership theories” (C.O. Scharmer), so leadership seems to be more and more a collective method of finding the “self.”

The paper starts with a brief review of the notion of ‘asymmetric warfare’ and asymmetric answers in the rhetoric of Soviet leaders. The point to be stressed is that the ‘asymmetric answer’ is always an unequal response by definition. The main idea of such a response is very clear: to eliminate the existing power imbalance at minimal expenses of the weaker side. The threats of ‘asymmetric answers’ on real or imagined international challenges and dangers have returned to the Russian president rhetoric in early 2000s. What has happened? The range of possible causes of this policy shift varies from the US foreign policy and various geopolitical issues to domestic reasons associated with the elections to come. The paper analyses the main versions. What actions are standing behind the words about the ‘asymmetric answers’ that might shape the landscape of international relations of the first half of the 21st century? The paper highlights this issue and looks onto the observed future of international relations.

This paper will attempt to shatter some of the myths about asymmetric warfare. Recently, the term “asymmetric” has been used a great deal in defense literature. In many cases, it is as if “asymmetric warfare” represents a newer and cleverer way of fighting. However, the notion, or rather the presumption, that the belligerents in any war have been, or can ever be, symmetrical in the first place – and that symmetry is less clever or desirable than asymmetry, particularly when it comes to strategy – is baseless. Symmetry between or among opposing parties is actually rarer than asymmetry. Moreover, the larger strategic asymmetries, which are obviously more evident, are not necessarily the most important with respect to determining outcomes. The term does not, in fact, lend itself to a precise definition; its continued use is, thus, counterproductive.