Citizen Army Research Articles

The application of ‘Small Wars’ theory and experience by the British Army in Macedonia during the First World War

ABSTRACT Historians of the British Army during the First World War have emphasised the shift from the small pre-war professional army engaged in imperial policing to the mass citizen army capable of conducting modern industrialised warfare on the European continent. That the conflict’s global dimensions led British forces beyond the Western Front to operate in conditions which bore remarkable resemblance to those encountered during the ‘small wars’ of the nineteenth century and confront comparably irregular adversaries has remained understudied, not least in how earlier experiences affected how such challenges were met. This article redresses this omission by examining how the expeditionary force in Macedonia, the British Salonika Force, was guided by institutional and individual experiences of ‘small wars’ when approaching the challenges posed by the region, not least the hostile indigenous population and comitadji irregulars.

La maschera del soldato dall’archáia alla mese

The mask of the boastful, arrogant, cowardly soldier asserts itself as a stock character in the Greek comedy of the fourth-third century BC and comes to its fullest expression in Roman palliata with Pyrgopolinice, the protagonist of Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus. However, ‘anticipatory’ traits of this mask can already be identified in Ancient Greek comedy which sometimes turns notable contemporary men, such as Lamachus, in Aristophanes’ Acharnians, or Pisander in Plato Comicus’ homonymous comedy, into comic characters who exhibit in nuce many of the founding elements that will define the soldier’s mask in the subsequent comic production. Starting from the fourth century, after the defeat in the Peloponnesian War and the end of democracy in Athens, views about war and the role of soldiers in society deeply changed: the citizen army of fifth-century Athens, which used to fight for the polis, was progressively replaced by mercenary captains operating outside or along the borders of the Greek world. Before the nea and the palliata, traces of this new type of soldier can be found in the fragmentary production of the Middle comedy: in a gradual stereotyping of the mask, poets like Nicostratus, Mnesimachus, Alexis or Antiphanes stage vainglorious, rough and swaggering alazônes who return to their native land more or less enriched by the mercenary campaigns and often dwell on hyperbolic account of phantasmagoric adventures on the edge of reality in exotic places with fairy-tale contours and on detailed descriptions of gargantuan banquets taking place in luxurious oriental courts.

The dictator’s legionnaires: foreign recruitment, coups, and uprisings

ABSTRACT Several countries recruit foreign nationals into their armed forces. This is despite the norm of citizen armies and the strong idea that individuals join the military to defend their home country while military service socializes them into good citizens. We argue that foreign recruits can have very specific benefits for some authoritarian governments. Because they lack strong links to society, their loyalties lie with whoever recruited and pays them, not the nation, country, or its citizens. As such, we argue, first, that their recruitment is especially attractive for personalistic rulers. Second, we propose that foreigners’ presence in the armed forces stymies these forces’ ability to carry out coup attempts and deters the occurrence of mass uprisings by signalling the security forces’ willingness to respond with violent repression. Empirical tests for the period 1946–2010 support these arguments. This research expands our understanding of legionnaire recruitment, civil–military relations, and comparative authoritarianism.

The Cretan way of war: status, violence and values from the Classical period to the Roman conquest

AbstractThe tactics of Cretan citizen armies differed markedly from those utilized in most regions of the Classical and Hellenistic Greek world: instead of fighting in phalanxes, Cretans fought in open order, specializing in archery, skirmishing, ambushes and night actions. These tactics (and the cultural attitudes that went with them) were disparaged by mainland Greeks such as Polybios and explained in terms of moral deviancy: a sign of the duplicitous nature of the Cretans. This article demonstrates that these descriptions of Cretan tactics and behaviours are factual, but argues against the idea that they derive from moral deviancy. Rather, they represent the outcome of a different line of historical development than that followed in mainland Greece. Cretan tactics and attitudes stand far closer to those described by archaic poets (especially Homer, Archilochos and Kallinos); in this regard, Cretan city states displayed strong continuities with archaic social practices and values, detectable in other areas of Cretan society and culture. The stability of Cretan sociopolitical organization from the late seventh century down to the Roman conquest fostered the endurance of such practices and attitudes, leading to cultural divergence from mainland Greece and, accordingly, a generally hostile representation of Cretans in our main historiographical sources.

Counterinsurgency Tactics, Rebel Grievances, and Who Keeps Fighting

How do government counterinsurgency tactics shape the behavior of the rebels they are combating? This letter builds upon foundational theories of civil war to argue that within-conflict government actions can further increase rebels’ levels of grievances. This increases the likelihood rebels continue fighting as conflicts unfold. I test the argument using newly compiled individual-level data on over 1,700 members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army who participated in the 1916 Easter Rising. Rebels varied in whether they were interned after the uprising. I show that rebels who were interned were more likely to fight throughout the entire Irish War of Independence. Qualitative evidence corroborates the contention that internment increased rebels’ levels of grievances. The letter elucidates how within-conflict events shape rebel behavior, by documenting how the tactics governments employ as they fight can shape the subsequent actions of the rebels they are combating.

The active lives of the material culture of commemoration: a Chinese braid and the Irish Citizen Army flag

ABSTRACT When material culture is used for commemorative purposes objects become mnemonic devices through which we construct narratives of ourselves and other people. By exploring the “active lives” of an Irish Citizen Army flag, exhibited in Dublin, and a Chinese braid/queue included in Remembering 1916: Your Stories (Ulster Museum 25 March 2016– 19 March 2017), this paper provides insights into how objects are positioned as part of dominant or peripheral narratives. How these objects are experienced is shaped by the social structures in which they are encountered. In the earliest phase the flag represented the campaign for Irish independence, and the braid was the symbol of the wearer’s community identity. Violent interventions by others changed the meaning of the flag and the braid, leading both to become trophy objects. Later, in the museum and a private home, the keeping of the objects suggests awareness of cultural significance, whilst their concealment suggests avoidance of the most difficult issues associated with those objects. This article explores the intentionality revealed by each phase providing new thinking about the agency of commemorative objects.

The Sewing Machine and Spectral Presences: Connolly, Shaw, and O’Casey

The Sewing Machine and Spectral Presences: Connolly, Shaw, and O’Casey

Prisoner of War Medical Ingenuity in Far East Captivity.

Research into British perspectives of the medical history of Far East prisoners of war (FEPOWs) has been conducted by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (United Kingdom), resulting from decades of treating FEPOW veterans that began after their repatriation in late 1945. This paper examines some of the ingenious ways that British medical officers, medical orderlies, and volunteers fought to save the lives of thousands of FEPOWs during captivity in the Second World War. It highlights some of the key medical challenges, together with the resourcefulness of a "citizen's army" of conscripts and volunteers who used their civilian knowledge, skills, and ingenuity in many ways to support Allied medical staff. Using the most basic of materials, they were able to produce a vast array of medical support equipment and even drugs, undoubtedly saving many lives.

Maquiavel e a importância do poder militar nacional

This work brings into consideration the teachings of Machiavelli regarding the consolidation of Nation-States. Under the hypothesis that the survival of the State would be attached to its capacity to provide its own defense by its own means, Machiavelli advocates that the creation of national armies formed by conscripts and promptly rejected the deployment of mercenaries, as well as rejected an army relying upon the aid from other States in the case of crisis or war, which were very common during his time. Nowadays, citizen armies became a reality, however the fast evolution of science, technology and innovation, as well as their consequences to the military expression of the national power, suggests that the existence of such armies no longer assure to any State the capacity to fully defend itself by its own means. This is true, particularly, for countries in which the processes of industrialization came late and that do not fully possess the knowledge required to develop critical and sensitive technologies, or those nations that operate with modest defense industry and, due to that, are heavily dependent upon other countries in regard to essential weaponry, weapon systems or other equipment’s. Aware of the importance of such aspects for the Military Power, we present in this work the characteristics of the defense market, as well as some of the difficulties faced by countries under late industrialization. Moreover, we introduce proposals for the development of a national core for defense industry, such as the exploration of dual technologies and process optimization for the purchase of military systems and weaponry. The ideas explored within this essay should be seen as a warning to anyone tasked to formulate public policies that defend the reduction of personnel and financial resources directed to the development of armed forces and its national defense industrial core.

Counterinsurgency Tactics, Rebel Grievances, and Who Keeps Fighting

Foundational theories of civil war argue that grievances motivate individuals to rebel. This letter expands this logic to explain within-conflict rebel behavior, arguing that the counterinsurgency tactics of governments can further increase grievances which in turn shape the likelihood rebels continue fighting as conflicts unfold. I test the argument using newly compiled individual-level data on over 1,700 members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army who participated in the 1916 Easter Rising. Rebels varied in whether they evaded capture after the uprising. I show that rebels who were interned were more likely to fight throughout the entire Irish War of Independence. Qualitative evidence corroborates the contention that imprisonment further radicalized Irish rebels. The letter elucidates how within-conflict events shape rebel behavior, by documenting how the tactics governments employ as they fight can shape the subsequent actions of the rebels they are combating.

Jeffrey Leddin, The “Labour Hercules”: The Irish Citizen Army and Irish Republicanism, 1913-23

Although actively involved in the Irish Revolution, the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) has garnered less attention from academics than the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) since the island was effectively partitioned in 1922. This book goes some way to bridging that gap, as it is the second monograph by an academic on the workers’ militia, after Ann Matthews’s in 2014, in this decade of centenary celebrations. The books devoted to the ICA had hitherto been written by activists, ...

The labour Hercules: the Irish Citizen Army and Irish republicanism, 1913–23. By Jeffrey Leddin. Pp 304. Newbridge: Irish Academic Press. 2019. €24.95.

The labour Hercules: the Irish Citizen Army and Irish republicanism, 1913–23. By Jeffrey Leddin. Pp 304. Newbridge: Irish Academic Press. 2019. €24.95.

Revolutionary Spaces in James Stephens's The Insurrection in Dublin

Revolutionary Spaces in James Stephens's The Insurrection in Dublin John T. Crawford (bio) At roughly one o'clock on Monday, April 24, 1916, James Stephens, a young author and the registrar of the National Gallery of Ireland, left his office near Merrion Square to return to his home at 42 Fitzwilliam Place for lunch. In the hour that preceded his entry into the city, Irish Volunteer (Óglaigh na hÉireann) and Irish Citizen Army (ICA) battalions had commandeered nearly a dozen strategic locations throughout Dublin, and by 12:45, Pádraig Pearse had appeared on the front steps of the General Post Office and declared, as provisional president, the foundation of the free Irish Republic, thereby marking the sudden and confusing beginning of the Easter Rising. Like many of his fellow Dubliners, Stephens first encountered the onset of the Rising as an unwitting spectator. However, as a journalist and novelist, he felt compelled to document the momentous event in hopes of making some sense of what seemed, to many, to be a hastily staged and performed military resistance to British control in the Irish capital. That day-by-day record of the rebellion became The Insurrection in Dublin , which was published later that summer. About the hours leading up to the insurrection and his first entry into the occupied city, Stephens explains: "On the morning [of April 24] I awoke into full insurrection and bloody war, but I did not know anything about it. It was Bank Holiday, but for employments such as mine there are not any holidays, so I went to my office at the usual hour. … Peace was in the building, and if any of the attendants had knowledge or rumour of war they did not mention it to me." 1 Significant in Stephens's account is his ability to communicate the presiding public sentiment of surprise in response to the sudden onset of armed rebellion. He describes his experience as a sudden shift from "peace," not only in his building but also in the city at large, to being confronted by that same city, very suddenly, as a space of "insurrection and bloody war." The Dublin that he unexpectedly encounters in that first moment is a space that, for him, had unexpectedly become violently disengaged from its political and social status quo. It was [End Page 59] a city that demanded representation, especially as it found itself embroiled in a moment of historical and military revolution that for many, including Stephens, defied logic. While existing scholarship on Stephens's book has focused primarily on its journalistic qualities, often appreciating it more as a "contemporaneous account" of the Rising rather than a literary and philosophical engagement with the event, it is important to understand the ways in which The Insurrection in Dublin struggles to come to terms with what Stephens saw as a crisis in conceiving of a unified Irish nation or people, specifically in regards to geographical and sociopolitical space. 2 The rebellion creates for Stephens a feeling of alienation and isolation that divides not only his experience but also that of the Dublin citizens whom he encounters from the acts of political resistance being performed that week on their behalf and in the name of the newly declared Irish Republic. As a result, Stephens's account repeatedly juxtaposes the seeming "peaceful[ness]" of the colonial city with the disorienting and dislocating "surprise" brought on by the Volunteers' violent insurrection, thereby suggesting something akin to the incongruity that Yi-Fu Tuan identifies between definitions of "space" and "place." Tuan describes space as a "blank sheet on which meaning may be imposed"; it has "no trodden paths and signposts. It has no fixed pattern of established meaning." Place, in contrast, is "[a] closed and humanized space"; it operates as "a calm center of established values." 3 Within that radical division between the allegedly "established" comfort of place and the unknowability of space lies what Tuan calls the threat of a "loss of power to order things … from one's unique perspective." 4 In many ways, Stephens's experience with the Dublin of Easter Week 1916 communicates that sense of uneasy becoming and unknowability, suggesting a spatial...

Enkele perspektiewe rakende die organisasie van die Oranje-Vrystaatse burgermag in Oktober 1899

The purpose of this article is to discuss the structure and organization of the Orange Free State (OFS) Boer republic’s citizen force army in October 1899 (that is when the Anglo-Boer War or South African War broke out). A basic question is whether the structure of the OFS armed forces was indeed effective as far as the organization of these armed forces was concerned. It will be indicated how and why the OFS citizen army command structure was adapted, and what legal consequences it had. A review is given of the OFS military laws (known as the Krijgs- en Commandowet; representing the military and commando law); the legal position of the OFS State President is explained (namely the role and functions of MT Steyn, last OFS President); the role of the Military Commission is discussed; as well as the role of the war councils and war meetings.

‘All Pretty Well Fed Up and Worn Out’? Morale, Combat Motivation, and the ‘Marshall Effect’ in VIII Corps at Gallipoli

This article explores the morale of the troops of British VIII Corps on Gallipoli in 1915-16, using Anthony King’s recent work on combat motivation in infantry platoons as a tool of analysis. King, partially rehabilitating the controversial work of S.L.A. Marshall, argues that left to themselves, the citizen armies of the early twentieth century tended to passivity. Officers resorted to a range of strategies to overcome this ‘Marshall Effect’, including appeals to patriotism and masculinity, mass tactics, and heroic leadership. It is contended that King’s model works well when applied to this case study – such methods were indeed employed by officers of VIII Corps - but the jury is out on its wider applicability, pending detailed case studies of other campaigns. As this article demonstrates, the morale of the troops of VIII Corps was severely tested throughout the Gallipoli campaign, as a rash of short-lived ‘panics’ demonstrated. There was a distinct downturn in August 1915, which was marked by an increase in rates of sickness and self-inflicted wounds, and a ‘strike’, when a sub-unit simply refused to carry out an attack. Despite this, there was no general and permanent breakdown of morale, in the sense of unwillingness to obey the orders of higher command. VIII Corps’ morale was characterised by stoicism and resilience in the face of adverse conditions.

Setting the Record Straight: Scharnhorst and the Origins of the Nineteenth-Century Prussian General Staff

Scharnhorst established the modern general staff. He was among the first anywhere to comprehend the transformation of war wrought by the citizen armies of the French Revolution. As early as 1793, then a captain in the Hanoverian army, Scharnhorst recommended combining organization and intellect into a collective or corporate genius called the General Staff with Troops. After Prussia’s defeat in 1806, he was able to lay the foundations of the modern general staff. Using primary and secondary source material, this article analyses the tremendous contribution of Gerhard von Scharnhorst to modern military history.

Noncitizen Soldiers: Explaining Foreign Recruitment by Modern State Militaries

More than a century after citizen armies became an international norm, nearly two dozen states actively recruit foreigners into their militaries. Why do these states skirt the strong citizen-soldier norm and continue to welcome foreigners? To explain this practice, we first identify two puzzles associated with foreign recruitment. The first is practical: foreign recruits pose loyalty, logistical, and organizational challenges that domestic soldiers do not. The second is normative: noncitizen soldiers lie in a normative gray zone, permitted under the letter of international law but in tension with the spirit of international norms against mercenary armies. Next, we survey foreign military recruitment programs around the world and sort them into three broad types of programs, each with its own primary motivation: importing expertise, importing labor, and bolstering international bonds. We explain these categories and explore three exemplary cases in depth: Australia, Bahrain, and Israel. Our findings suggest that foreign recruitment can affect a state’s military operations by allowing militaries to rapidly develop advanced capabilities, by reducing the political risk associated with the use of force, and by expanding a state’s influence among former colonial and diaspora populations.

William Tell Militarism: The Swiss Model for Canada’s ‘Citizen Army’

Following Confederation in 1867, Canadians needed to move forward from their dependence on British imperial defence. Canadian militiaman Richard John Wicksteed was first to recommend adopting the model of the Swiss Army, a multi-ethnic, rifle-wielding citizen force powerful enough to ensure Swiss neutrality although surrounded by militaristic European powers. General Officer Commanding Edward Thomas Henry Hutton later proposed the Swiss model for a Canadian ‘National Army,’ echoed by Militia Minister Frederick Borden. In 1917, Colonel William Hamilton Merritt was the final advocate, drawn especially to the notion of equality in Switzerland’s universal military training programme. By this time, however, the Great War had changed concepts of Canada’s military needs from a reliance upon the defence-oriented citizen soldier to a more highly trained, expeditionary military force.

Válka, armáda, stát a národ: byrokracie, disciplína a nacionalismus

The text deals with the connections between war, armed forces, nationstate and modern nation. The author mapes out selected research issues which demonstrate the interference between them. The first one is a role played by organized violence, and especially by the military forces in the nation-building process, the second one – the development of the national citizen army consisting of conscripts. The other such issues are the results of the industrialization of war and concomitant social processess, and the national army’s role as an agent which indoctrinated and imposed the disciplinary social control pattern on a most of the state’s male population. The author presents armed forces’s role as an institution, and a symbol of the nation, as well as war’s and armed forces’s role as building blocks of the national history. Despite the popular opinion about the crucial importance of nationalist ideas, which presumably induced whole populations to make unprecedent sacrifices in the name of the nation, the author suggests that modern organizational techniques and the modern dicipline were perhaps more important factors responsible for the political success of the nation-state, and later of the modern nation.

Before the Main Game: Australia’s Citizen Infantry Battalion Commanders before the First World War

This article explores officer capability and culture of the Australian army before the First World War, in particular those officers who held infantry battalion commands. Although the men who served in Australia’s part-time citizen army as infantry battalion commanders showed dedication and enthusiasm for soldiering, they were under-developed as infantry commanders, owing to time constraints and general under-investment in officer education and training. Officers who became battalion commanders were also relatively old, and their rise through the ranks was facilitated more by social position, rather than competence or experience. As a result, those Citizen Forces battalion commanders who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force largely failed to carry out commands effectively in wartime, an indictment on the state of the Australian Army before the First World War.