Are Post-Cold War Militaries Postmodern?

Abstract

Social scientists concerned with processes of change within military organizations have begun to appropriate the language of postmodernism in order to describe a number of transformations observed in military forces cross-nationally since the end of the Cold War. Although the thesis of the "postmodern military" may have a novel appeal to scholars across a broad range of disciplines, this article argues that while substantial changes are indeed occurring in the armed forces of Western countries, there is at present little evidence to suggest that these changes are postmodern in nature. On the contrary, most of the developments in contemporary armed forces being described as such are actually modern in character-emerging as the result of rational, purposeful adaptation to environmental contingencies. We argue that the intellectual discourse of postmodernism is useful for military sociology only to the extent that scholars are able to apply discrete strands of postmodern social theory to predict or explain processes of change. The article examines the utility of three such strands: post-industrialism, post-Fordism, and globalization. Finally, alternative criteria, heretofore marginalized in the discussion of the postmodern military, are suggested as benchmarks to determine the degree to which the armed forces have indeed become postmodern.

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