The Citizen-Soldier Tradition in the United States

Has Its Demise Been Greatly Exaggerated

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2340700
AutoresRonald R Krebs (0000-0001-6504-060X, University of Minnesota, autor correspondente)
Ano2009
Volume36
Fascículo1
Páginas153-174
Data de publicação2009-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoArmed Forces & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0095-327X • E-ISSN: 1556-0848
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0095327x09337370
OpenAlexW2171993849
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas34
Referências citadas22

Many contend that the citizen-soldier tradition in the United States is dead. They argue that the elimination of the draft in 1973, and the establishment of the all-volunteer force (AVF), severed the link between military service and citizenship. The author maintains that this conventional wisdom is wrong. Critics of the AVF have idealized the pre-AVF U.S. military; they have failed to recognize that the AVF was more a product of change in U.S. citizenship ideals than a cause of them; and they have asserted a homology between institutional design (military recruitment system) and a cultural phenomenon (the citizen-soldier tradition) that has little historical purchase. This article reconceptualizes the citizen-soldier tradition as a set of rhetorical conventions, and it demonstrates that these tropes continue to shape political debate in the United States. From this perspective, the AVF did not condemn the citizen-soldier to death: it gave him or her a new lease on life

Citizenship · Epistemology · Military service · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law · Military History and Strategy · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies