The Postmodern Military

Abstract

This chapter considers the likely prospects of the movement towards a postmodern format for civil-military relations. The central point, for our analysis, is that postmodern society is distinguished from modern society by the transition from certainty to radical uncertainty about the meaning or purpose of central roles and institutions. Drawing heavily on the historical experience of Western European nations, to include the United States, it is possible to describe and contrast modem and postmodern military organizations, and to speculate about the factors facilitating movement from one type to the other. The late modern type, is added to help explain the transition from modern to postmodern military organization. It dates from the mid-twentieth century to the early 1990s. One key difference between modern and postmodern societies lies in the character of the threats they face and the ways they perceive them. In the postmodern military, pressure grows to incorporate women into all assignments, including combat roles.