Militarism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Militarism or militarist ideology is the doctrinal view of a society as being best served (or more efficient) when it is governed or guided by concepts embodied in the culture, doctrine, system, or people of the military. Militarists hold the view that discipline is the highest social priority, and claim that the development and maintenance of the military ensures that discipline. Militarism connotes the drive to expand military culture and ideals to areas outside of the military structure —most notably in areas of private business, government policy, education, and entertainment.
Militarism is ideologically rooted in or related to concepts of alarmism, expansionism, extremism, fascism, imperialism, loyalism, nationalism, patriotism, protectionism, supremacy, totalitarianism, triumphalism and warmongering.
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[edit] Overview
Under the justification of potential application of force, militarism asserts that civilian populations are dependent upon — and thereby subservient to —the needs and goals of its military. Common tenets include advocation of "peace through strength" as the proper method to secure the interests of society — and is expressed as one that overrides all others; including traditional precursory diplomatic relations and issues related to social welfare.
Militarism is sometimes contrasted with the concepts of comprehensive national power and soft power and hard power. This quality may be identified in economic terms by several methods; including the determination of those nations with large modern militaries requiring large or substantially higher budgets than the average among nations to maintain large military forces (as of 2005 viz United States, the People's Republic of China, Russia) or to expand such forces (as of 2005 viz Israel, Kuwait, Singapore), or to nation-states devoting substantial portions of their GDPs per capita to develop such forces (as of 2005 viz. North Korea, Equatorial Guinea, Saudi Arabia).
Militarism is manifest in practice by the preferentiality toward goals, concepts, doctrines, and policies derived, originated, or directed from personnel in the military. It is likewise characterized by preferentiality toward persons officially or tangentially associated with causes, and regards loyalty to those narrow interests to be paramount. In a democratic republic, a central component of any state constitution are rules concerning how military rule (martial law, executive powers) may be implemented, and how such powers are to be returned to the elected government.
[edit] German militarism
Militarism has been defined as "a policy which maintains huge standing armies for purposes of aggression." The fact that a nation, through universal conscription, maintains a large standing army in times of peace does not necessarily make it a militarist state; prior to the First World War most European nations (except Great Britain) maintained such an army, yet not all had a government which could be defined as militaristic. Prior to the First World War in Germany, however, the armed forces were the strongest influence in government, and at times used their influence to override the civil power. Additionally, most Chancellors and some leading German political figures in this period were serving or retired officers in the armed forces. There was a strong culture of nationalism and deference towards the Kaiser. The Captain of Köpenick incident in 1906 is considered in Germany as an iconic example of that era's attitudes.
The roots of German militarism can be found in the history of Prussia during the nineteenth century, and the subsequent unification of Germany under Prussian leadership. After Napoleon conquered Prussia, early in the nineteenth century, one of the conditions of peace was that Prussia should reduce her army to not more than forty-two thousand men. In order that the country should not again be so easily conquered, the king of Prussia enrolled the permitted number of men for one year, then dismissed that group, and enrolled another of the same size, and so on. Thus, in the course of ten years, it would be possible for him to gather an army of four hundred thousand men who had had at least one year of military training. The officers of the army were drawn almost entirely from among the land-owning nobility. The result was that there was gradually built up a large class of professional officers on the one hand, and, on the other, a much larger class, the rank and file of the army. These men had become used, in the army, to obeying implicitly all the commands of the officers, creating a class-based culture of deference.
This led to several results. Since the officer class furnished also most of the officials for the civil administration of the country, the interests of the army came to be considered the same as the interests of the country as a whole. A second result was that the governing class desired to continue a system which gave them so much power over the common people, contributing to the continuing influence of the Junker noble classes.
Militarism in Germany continued after the First World War and the fall of the German monarchy. During the period of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), the Kapp Putsch, an attempted coup against the republican government, was launched by disaffected members of the armed forces. After this, the more radical militarists and nationalists were subsumed into the Nazi Party, while more moderate elements of militarism declined. Nazi Germany was a strongly militarist state; after its fall in 1945, militarism in German culture was dramatically reduced, as a backlash against the Nazi period.
[edit] Japanese militarism
In parallel with 20th century Germany's militarism, Japanese militarism began with a series of events by which the military gained prominence in dictating Japan's affairs as evident in 15th century Japan's Sengoku Period or Age of Warring States where powerful samurai warlords or shogun played a significant role in Japanese politics. Japan's militarism is deeply rooted in the ancient samurai tradition, centuries way before Japan's modernization. Centuries of civil wars have brought about rigid military rule and secured a place for the military in government affairs only to last until Japan's unconditional surrender in World War II after the United States brought about democracy to the once militaristic state. With this dictatorial power, Japan invaded the Republic of China in 1931 and overtook half of Chinese land within 11 years, and finally spread the Second World War to the Pacific by the Pearl Harbor Attack.
[edit] US militarism
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries political and military leaders reformed the US federal government to establish a stronger central government than had ever previously existed for the purpose of enabling the nation to pursue an imperial policy in the Pacific and in the Caribbean and economic militarism to support the development of the new industrial economy. This reform was the result of a conflict between Neo-Hamiltonian Republicans and Jeffersonian-Jacksonian advocates over the proper administration of the state and direction of its foreign policy--between proponents of professionalism based on business management organizations and fuller local control by available figures-including amateurs. After the end of the American Civil War the national army fell into disrepair. Reforms based on various European states including Imperial Britain, Imperial Germany, and Switzerland were made so that it would become responsive to control from the central government, prepared for future conflicts, and develop refined command and support structures; it led to the development of a professional military. During this time the intellectual ideas of Social Darwinism propelled the development of an American Empire in the Pacific and Caribbean and necessitated extensive efficient central government due to its administration requirements.
The enlargement of the US army for the Spanish-American War was considered essential to the occupation and control of the new territories acquired from Spain in its defeat (Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba). The previous limit by legislation of 24 000 men was expanded to 60 000 regulars in the new army bill on 2 February 1901, with allowance at that time for expansion to 80 000 regulars by presidential discretion at times of national emergency.
[edit] Israeli militarism
Israel's many security difficulties since the establishment of the State have led to a prominence of security in politics and civil society, resulting in many of Israel's top politicians being former high ranking military officials (partial list: Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon, Ezer Weizman, Ehud Barak, Shaul Mofaz, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Mordechai, Amram Mitzna). On the other hand, the military culture of the Israel Defence Forces has been affected greatly by the civilian culture. Israeli culture is much less formal and regimented than most and this has spilled over into the military, especially since the vast majority of the officers and soldiers are reservists who bring their civilian background and behavioural norms into the army when they are mobilized (an example is the minimum of formality between separate ranks - commanders often being called by name rather than by rank by their subordinates, very little saluting except in ceremonies and such-like). Also the army has been entrusted with many civilian missions (social work, providing teachers in areas where they are lacking and so on), and this too has had its effect on the way army career personnel view the role of the army and their commitment to civilian society and norms.
[edit] Militarism in fiction
- Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
- Forever War - Joe Haldeman
- Barrayar in the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
[edit] See also
- Antimilitarism
- Christian nonviolence
- Civilian control of the military
- List of military officers who have led divisions of a civil service
[edit] References
- Bacevich, Andrew J. The New American Militarism. Oxford: University Press, 2005.
- Barr, Ronald J. "The Progressive Army: US Army Command and Administration 1870-1914." St. Martin's Press, Inc. 1998. ISBN 0-312-21467-7.
- Bond, Brian. War and Society in Europe, 1870-1970. McGill-Queen's University Press. 1985 ISBN 0-7735-1763-4
- Ensign, Tod. America's Military Today. The New Press. 2005. ISBN 1-56584-883-7.
- Fink, Christina. Living Silence: Burma Under Military Rule. White Lotus Press. 2001. ISBN 1-85649-925-1.
- Frevert, Ute. A Nation in Barracks: Modern Germany, Military Conscription and Civil Society. Berg, 2004. ISBN 1-85973-886-9
- Huntington, Samuel P.. Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1981.
- Ritter, Gerhard The Sword and the Scepter; the Problem of Militarism in Germany, translated from the German by Heinz Norden, Coral Gables, Fla., University of Miami Press 1969-73.
- Shaw, Martin. Post-Military Society: Militarism, Demilitarization and War at the End of the Twentieth Century. Temple University Press, 1992.
- Tang, C. Comprehensive Notes on World History Hong Kong, 2004
- Vagts, Alfred. A History of Militarism. Meridian Books, 1959.
- Western, Jon. Selling Intervention and War. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2005. ISBN 0801881080
