The Dynamics of the Contemporary Military Role: In Search of Flexibility

Agata Mazurkiewicz

doi:10.17951/k.2018.25.2.7-24

Abstract

The article offers an overview and reflection on the dynamics of the military role taking into account different security contexts and significant others. It analyses two dominant types of military roles: warrior embedded in the realistic perspective on security and peacekeeper grounded in the liberal approach. Finally, it examines the dynamics of the modern military role in the light of the internal-external security nexus. The article shows that the contemporary military role needs not only to combine warrior and peacekeeper roles but also develop some new elements in order to meet the requirements of the contemporary security context.

Highlights

The so-called traditional role of the military was constructed in a security context defined by war or its proximity, where the primary objective of the armed forces was to protect the state from external threats
What are the main drivers of change in the military role in this new context? What types of new referent objects, threats and other actors significantly influence the contemporary military role? And how this translates into the fluctuation of this role?
The contemporary military engagement goes far beyond involvement in cyber protection and domestic counter-terrorism operations. These two areas clearly depict the most prominent aspects of internal-external security nexus [Eriksson, Rhinard 2009] which characterises the dynamics of contemporary security context

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The so-called traditional role of the military was constructed in a security context defined by war or its proximity, where the primary objective of the armed forces was to protect the state from external threats. The main objective of the military was no longer the protection of the state, the new enemy was often ill-defined and there appeared multiple other actors (such as international public opinion or multinational peacekeeping forces) that influenced the military role [Franke 1999a] In both cases, the context in which the military operates has a strong external orientation. The contemporary military engagement goes far beyond involvement in cyber protection and domestic counter-terrorism operations These two areas clearly depict the most prominent aspects of internal-external security nexus [Eriksson, Rhinard 2009] which characterises the dynamics of contemporary security context. Based on that and despite obvious heterogeneity between states and within the armed forces it is possible to assume that European societies construct military roles in similar ways [Edmunds 2006; Svircsev Tresch 2007]

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

SECURITY NEXUS

CYBER SPACE

CONCLUSIONS