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Militarization and the Paramilitarization of Culture: Accounting for New Civil–Military Complexity

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Militarization and the Global Rise of Paramilitary Culture

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Abstract

After what was historically a relatively peaceful end to the twentieth century, the first two decades of the new millennium has seen prolonged conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, rising military tensions in East Asia, and Russia aggressively deploying its military as well as paramilitary groups in support of an expansionist foreign policy. At the same time, the role of the military in the social memory of nations is increasingly being challenged and reimagined as a consequence of generational change, consumer capitalism and the rise of desecularisation. In order to comprehend how sociologists can grapple with such developments, this chapter evaluates the dominant ways that social scientists and cultural scholars have charted the intersections between culture, war and the military. It is argued that a more multidimensional understanding of militarisation is required, one that can appreciate the diverse consequences of cultural engagement with military traditions and the changing status and role of the institutional military. Distinguishing between the processes of militarisation and paramilitarisation of culture is proposed as an important step in this direction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Brad West

  2. Royal Danish Defence College, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Thomas Crosbie

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  1. Brad West
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Correspondence to Brad West .

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  1. University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Brad West

  2. Royal Danish Defence College, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Thomas Crosbie

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West, B., Crosbie, T. (2021). Militarization and the Paramilitarization of Culture: Accounting for New Civil–Military Complexity. In: West, B., Crosbie, T. (eds) Militarization and the Global Rise of Paramilitary Culture . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5588-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5588-3_1

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