The "Democratic Soldier": Comparing Concepts and Practices in Europe
Oct 2013 · SSR Papers Book 9 · Ubiquity Press
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About this ebook
Since the end of the Cold War almost all European countries have reformed their armed forces, focusing on downsizing, internationalization and professionalization. This paper examines how these changes in security sector governance have affected the normative model underlying the military’s relationship to democracy, using the image of the “democratic soldier”. Drawing on a comparative analysis of 12 post-socialist, traditional and consolidated democracies in Europe, the different dimensions of the national conception of soldiering are analysed based on the official norms that define a country’s military and the ways in which individual members of the armed forces see their role. Cases converge around the new idea of professional soldiering as a merging of civilian skills with military virtues in the context of the military’s new post-Cold War missions. Yet despite this convergence, research also shows that specific aspects of national traditions and context continue to influence the actual practice of soldiering in each case. The contradictions that result between these old and new visions of the role of the military and the soldier illustrate the tensions that exist between political goals and defence reform dynamics.
About the author
Sabine Mannitz is a senior researcher and head of the research group on Cultural Dynamics of Political Globalisation at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt/Main. A social anthropologist and political scientist by training, she holds a PhD in social and cultural sciences from the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder. Her current research concentrates on ownership conditions and cultural effects of global norm transmission efforts related to security sector reform.
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