The Methodological Approach of the Study on the Differences between Civilian Students and Military Cadets

In this article the basic value orientations of future officers and civilian students are compared. It is found that the variance between the 13 countries included in the survey is mostly larger than the one between civilian and military students when it comes to the basic value dimensions such as tradition vs. modernity, left vs. right, cosmopolitan vs. localistic, materialistic vs. post-materialistic and civilian vs. military values. Thus, the military are not consistently in all countries more religious, more right oriented and more materialistic than their civil fellow students, even if there exists a tendency for such a trend.

Existing research on the characteristics of digital natives, traditionally defined as those born after 1980, has shown subtle differences in how they approach technology compared with other cohorts. However, much of the existing research has focused on a limited set of conventional technologies, mostly related to learning. In addition, prior research has shown differences within this cohort in how they respond to autonomous technology (e.g., trust, reliance; Pak, Rovira, McLaughlin, & Baldwin, 2016). The purpose of this short report, representing the first wave of data collection in a larger study examining technology experience and attitude change, is to directly address 2 shortcomings in the literature on digital natives which tends to emphasize: (a) civilian students; and (b) conventional, often learning technologies. We addressed these 2 issues by recruiting 2 subgroups of digital natives (students and military cadets) and assessing attitudes and experience with a wide range of technology spanning from conventional (e.g., mobile) to emerging (e.g., robotics). The results showed that that both groups were surprisingly unfamiliar with emerging consumer technologies. Additionally, contrary to expectations, cadets were significantly, albeit only slightly, less experienced with mobile technologies, VR/augmented reality, social media, and entertainment technology as compared to civilian undergraduates.

African-Americans in the U.S. military encompass at least two distinct identity groups: a racial status associated with lower support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a military status which tends to be more ‘hawkish’ in perspective. This study examines the intersection of these two status characteristics utilizing survey data of American military academy cadets, Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) cadets, and civilian students (n = 5,051). Majorities of military cadets, regardless of race, supported both of these wars more than their civilian counterparts, but African-Americans are significantly less supportive of the wars relative to their peers within each group. African-American cadets support both wars less so than whites and cadets of other races, but African-American cadets supported both wars more than African-American civilians. It appears that racial and military affiliations combine to yield a unique perspective on war, adapting elements of both statuses. These findings support the concept of intersectionality.

Aim. To review methodological approaches to the formation of preadaptivity of military university cadets and to present a comprehensive analysis of the main theoretical and methodological foundations that identify key aspects of the formation of preadaptivity of military university cadets.Methodology and methods. The main provisions of the conducted research are based on a comprehensive methodology, including systematic, axiological and activity-based approaches. Research methods include analysis of scientific sources, synthesis of scientific ideas, generalization of pedagogical experience.Results. The article considers systematic, axiological and activity-based approaches to the formation of preadaptivity of military university cadets. Based on the results of the analysis, key aspects of the formation of preadaptivity of military university cadets have been identified: taking into account the individual characteristics of cadets, creating conditions for the development of professional skills and personal qualities, coordinating the actions of all participants in the educational process. All this will further make it possible to develop and implement an effective system for the formation of preadaptivity of cadets at a military university.Theoretical and/or practical significance. The results of the study can be used to develop a system for the formation of preadaptivity of military university cadets, which will be aimed at creating conditions for the comprehensive development of cadets and will allow them not only to successfully complete training, but also to prepare for their official duties in difficult and changing conditions of military service.Conclusions. Consideration of the identified methodological approaches that influence the formation of preadaptivity plays an important role in the professional and job training of military university cadets. The formation of preadaptivity among cadets is an urgent and important task of the military education system, as military specialists are constantly faced with rapid changes in the political and military environment. The training of future officers capable of operating in these conditions of uncertainty and dynamic situations is necessary to ensure the defense capability of the state.

The paper focuses on studying the associative connection “war – victory,” as represented in various Russian associative databases. The databases under examination include two all-Russian associative dictionaries of the end of the last century, two modern Russian regional associative bases combining verbal reactions of students who live in the European part of Russia and Siberia, respectively, and the sub-corpus of associations obtained in the psycho-linguistic experiment with the military cadets of one of the Russian military academies. The study shows that the associative connection “war – victory” has a low degree of relevance in the ordinary linguistic consciousness. This phenomenon, also found in American, British, French, and Spanish associative databases, turns out to be universal and does not depend on geographical area, generation, or nationality. The most frequent reactions to stimulus “war” obtained from Russian civilian students in different years and different geographical regions may be grouped into approximately four semantic zones: the war as the opposite of peace, Lev Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace,” death, the Great Patriotic war (1941–1945). The rele-vance of the associative connection “war – victory” is stronger in the linguistic consciousness of the military servicemen. The reactions to stimulus “war” in the military cadets’ associative base show that the cadets refer the word war not to a historical event but a professional activi-ty, with victory being its product and desirable result. Thus, the professional identification of experiment subjects is found to affect the semantic and statistical characteristics of the associates.

BackgroundAs alcohol misuse remains pervasive within the military, evidence-based prevention programs that are feasible to implement and appropriately tailored to meet the needs and norms of military personnel are critically needed. Further, programs that target future military leaders, such as trainees, recruits, and cadets, may be especially impactful. eCHECKUP TO GO is a web-based, evidence-based brief alcohol intervention designed to reduce alcohol misuse through education and personalized feedback that may be suitable for military trainees. However, because it was developed for civilian students, efforts to adapt the content for military settings are needed.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the acceptability of a military version of eCHECKUP TO GO, tailored to include military-specific terminology and alcohol use statistics.MethodsUS Air Force Academy cadets were recruited to participate in a single-arm, mixed methods study. Following the completion of eCHECKUP TO GO, participants completed a survey that assessed satisfaction with specific aspects of the user experience, including ease of use, design, and relevance of the information and personalized feedback (range: 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree). A subset of cadets also participated in a focus group to expound on the survey responses.ResultsSurvey participants included 22 cadets (n=12, 55% male; mean age 19.6, SD 1.8 years). In addition, 6 (27%) cadets participated in the focus group. Participants were satisfied with the program overall (mean 5.8, SD 0.9) and gave the highest ratings to ease of use (mean 6.6, SD 0.7), site design (mean 6.5, SD 0.6), and site interactivity (mean 6.4, SD 1.0). Items pertaining to tailoring, relevance, and amount of content specific to cadets scored lowest (mean 5.8, SD 1.4; mean 5.6, SD 1.4; and mean 5.5, SD 1.5, respectively). Most (n=15, 68%) participants said they would act upon the information they were provided. Focus group participants made suggestions for improved tailoring, such as increasing content on social aspects of drinking and military-specific risks of alcohol misuse (eg, Uniform Code of Military Justice violations).ConclusionsAlthough the acceptability of eCHECKUP TO GO was high, continued efforts are needed to ensure the content accurately reflects the experiences of cadets. Researchers who design military health promotion interventions need to consider the varied contexts within the force and rigorously evaluate the acceptability of all content before implementation.

The expert survey, carried out in the manner described in Part I of this volume (in Chapter 2), enables us to get a look, through the opinions of a set of top leaders and opinion makers, at the perception of the cultural gap between society and armed forces felt by current elites, as well as to gain insights into the trends over time.

We surveyed 270 young officers studying at the Bundeswehr University in Munich and 400 civilian students from Potsdam University. Both groups of future elites were from the social sciences, law, economics or computer sciences departments. The questionnaires were distributed to respondents between January and May 2004. All respondents were volunteers. Return rates were 99% for the military sample with 268 questionnaires returned and 25% for the civilian sample with 100 questionnaires returned so that a total of 368 questionnaires were processed.

Although prior research has extensively examined the association of emotional intelligence (EI) with various job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction), empirical and systematic investigation of this link within military institutions has captured considerably less attention. The present research analyzed the relationship between EI, teamwork communication, and job satisfaction among Spanish military cadets. We tested the potential unique contribution of EI to job satisfaction over and above demographics (i.e., gender and age), proactive personality, and resilience. Moreover, we also examined whether EI was indirectly linked to job satisfaction via its relationship with teamwork communication. A sample of 363 cadet officers of the Spanish General Military Academy completed questionnaires assessing EI, teamwork communication, proactive personality, resilience, and job satisfaction. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that EI exhibited incremental variance (ΔR2 = 5.2%) in predicting job satisfaction (B = 0.539, 95% CI [0.306,0.771]) even after accounting for demographics, proactive personality, and resilience. Additionally, mediation analysis showed that the association of EI with job satisfaction was partially driven by enhanced teamwork communication. This research provides empirical evidence suggesting a pathway (i.e., effective teamwork communication) through which EI could help military cadets to experience higher job satisfaction. Implications for future academic programs including EI and teamwork communication to promote positive job attitudes among military personnel are discussed.

This paper serves to present the Swiss data in the framework of the international project “Civil–Military Gap” of ERGOMAS Working Group “Military Profession”. Its theoretical basis has been developed in a common working paper (Jelusic, Caforio, Haltiner, Moelker, & Szvircsev Tresch, 2003) and will be presented in a more detailed way in a forthcoming common cross-national analysis. The main research hypothesis and its implied research questions refer to the existence of a growing cultural gap between the military and its parent democratic society: Is there such a gap between the armed forces, mainly its professional bodies and democratic society? If yes, what is the nature of that gap? According to the planning of the research project, the following research steps are carried on in the participating countries: (1) investigate the political culture of future (civilian and military) elites by simultaneously surveying cadets at military academies and students at civilian universities; (2) carry out semi-structured interviews with present elites (an expert survey) in order to assess changes in civil–military relations over time; and (3) elaborate and compare results at cross-national level and compare and contrast them with data from the American (Feaver, Kohn, & Cohn, 2001) research. This paper first outlines some peculiarities of the Swiss military system, considering them as somewhat important for the question of the nature of a possible civil–military gap. It then presents the methodological procedure and the main findings of Switzerland.

Relevance. Professionally oriented environmental education at the present stage is considered as an integral component of the education content implemented in military universities. The article is devoted to the problem of the formation of a values-based attitude towards nature among cadets ofmilitary universities, which ensures the sustainable personal development in accordance with the laws of the biosphere. Aim. To substantiate the possibility of ecological worldview formation of military universities cadets on the basis of the developed model for the development of professionally oriented mega-ecological education. Methods of research. The study uses methods of analyzing and summarizing the results of scientific works on the topic of the research, as well as the method of pedagogical modeling. Scientific novelty / theoretical and/or practical significance. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the development of the authors' model for the development of professionally oriented mega-ecological education for cadets of military universities. The theoretical significance lies in clarifyingthe difference between traditional environmental education as a subject area and mega-ecological education. The developed authors' model can be used to design the process of environmentally-oriented professional training of military specialists. Results. The research made it possible to determine the following approaches to solving the research problem: system-activity, axiological and ecological. The study also reveals the development stages of professionally oriented mega-environmental education of military university cadets. Conclusions. The proposed model gives an idea of the development of professionally-oriented mega-ecological education of cadets of military universities based on the complex methodological approaches, as well as the incorporation of academic, educational and research activities of cadets.

Articulation and Concordance: A Dialogue on Civil–Military Relations in Fiji

Civil society is currently marked by two major trends—one is the shrinking civic space, as civil society actors are increasingly met with ideological resistance, and the other is marketisation as New Public Management principles are introduced in civil society governance. This chapter explores how civil society leaders experience these macro-level trends through forms of contestation, which is a perspective that has so far been overlooked in research. The theoretical framework distinguishes between the target, the source, and the depth of the contestation. The empirical investigation is based on a new survey of civil society elites and compares leaders in Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the UK. Overall, the investigation finds less contestation than expected. Contestation of the leaders as individuals comes mostly from within their organisations and is more professional than ideological. More and deeper contestation is instead directed at the organisations, and its precise forms reflect the different civil society regimes that our four countries represent.

Problem of civil-military relations (CMR) in Ukraine in itself appears universal, but is indeed specific in its nature as it is in any other country. Taking into account own historical experience, the country saw the necessity of improvement of civil-military relations in accordance with the world standards. The article presents civil- military relations as a matter of the proper political science conception, emphasizing that they are the special type of socio-political activity, which main task is the defense of a country. In the conditions of democratic state building, the main mechanism of realization of the proper relations is democratic civil control. Originality, CMR in Ukraine is formed by common mankind moral values, necessity of collegiality of Ukraine, explicit certain orienteers of national spiritual freedom, of independence of people, by orthodox mentality. With the specialty of the Ukrainian life, victories and sufferings of people, by a fight for independence, by relations with other people, the basic problems of CMR, questions of military history, are mutually connected. The phenomenon of CMR in Ukraine comes forward as the phenomenon of culture of society, expression of public consciousness, mass world view, is determined as an integral national-culture, political-social historical process with the stages of independent, original development: 1.Archaic period which is characterized by natural, elemental-folk creation of communal and individual forms of bellicosity with its connection with defense of community, with magic and earth in the days of Kievan Rus. 2. Period of forming and grandeur of princely military institution with its support by a church in the days of Kievan Rus, when friendly, sympathizing, and benevolent attitude toward an army purchased the type of public moral-ideological imperative. 3. Social self-defense and self-preservation in the days of Lithuanian-Polish occupation, when social, ethnic, national and orthodox self-determination of Ukrainians showed up. 4. Period of Cossacks bellicosity and self-rescue of Ukrainian nation, whose ideological basis was the orthodox religion. 5. Period of imperial guardianship of civil-military relations on Levobereankness and Slobozhanschina in ХVІІ – ХVІІІ centuries. 6. Period of dominations of general CMR of the Russian empire (an end of ХVІІІ is beginning of XX age). 7. Period of struggle for liberation in the first half of XX century on western territories and Pravoberezh'e of Ukraine, which was based on the idea of national folk self-defense and non-acceptance of intervention from other powers in the life of people. 8. Period of dominations of the soviet forms of CMR in Soviet Ukraine. 9. Period of formation and development in the new independent, democratic Ukraine. Exactly these approaches allow to elaborate the conceptual model of civil-military relations in Ukraine, to see their traditional character, heredity, specific features of their formation, related to the historical factors and specialty of the Ukrainian people, to specify the democratic civil control as a mechanism of realization of such relations in the conditions of democratic state building in Ukraine.

Contemporary studies of African Civil-Military Relations have shown that more than 50 % of the African states have undergone one or more successful or abortive military coups. A number of theories have been proposed to explain Civil-Military Relations. The purpose of this paper is to test Huntington's theory of Objective Civilian Control with respect to Civilian-Military Relations in modern Africa. Following a brief overview of African Civil- Military Relations and focus on the question of who controls whom, the paper poses the same question relative to non-African Civil-Military Relations. In a more extensive, in-depth case study of Nigeria, the paper seeks to examine the level and source of military profes sionalism, whether or not Nigeria has ever been free of military intervention in its political process because of its high level of professionalism, and whether Huntington's argument has any validity. In addition, the role of the African military in Nigeria as a paradigm in African Civilian-Military Relations is examined by discussing when and why Nigeria achieved her nationhood, the causes and consequences of military intervention and the level of Nigerian military professionalism, the role of the military and the Civil War, and why professionalism is not a reliable deterrent to military intervention in politics. This discussion illustrates the fallacy of most assumptions in the Civil-Military Relations literature today. The paper concludes that Huntington's assumption that non-military intervention is a function of civilian encouragement of military professionalism and professionalization is spurious. Based on the Nigeran case study and cross-national observations, the data show that a high degree of professionalism and professionalization is not a reliable deterrent against African military activism and intervention in civilian affairs. The data support the findings that professionalization of the military alone would not deter the military from intervening unless it is accompanied by the military's complete satisfaction with civilian control. Without this satisfaction, the military establishment is likely to challenge and possibly remove the civilian control whenever the military is disenchanted with or envious of civilian rule. Drawing from studies on political anthropology, it is sound to say that African military intervention is normal and one of the fundamental aspects of African tradi tional Warriorism. In the final analysis, Objective Military Control is not unique to Africa. It is a universal political phenomenon in Civil-Military Relations today.