Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Week - Nov. Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. What Is 'Semantic Bleaching'?
How 'literally' can mean "figuratively". Literally How to use a word that literally drives some pe Is Singular 'They' a Better Choice? The awkward case of 'his or her'. Take the quiz. Our Favorite New Words How many do you know? How Strong Is Your Vocabulary? Farmers sought agricultural exemptions from compulsory service until the end of the war. The bitterness among farmers, many of them in the West, led to the development of new federal and provincial parties.
French-speaking Canadians continued their protests as well, and young men by the tens of thousands joined others from across Canada in refusing to register for the selection process. Of those that did register, 93 percent applied for an exemption.
An effort to arrest suspected draft dodgers was highly unpopular across the province and, at its worst, resulted in several days of rioting and street battles in Quebec City at Easter, The violence left four civilians dead and dozens injured, and shocked supporters on both sides. By the Armistice, 48, conscripts had been sent overseas, half of which served at the front, providing crucial soldiers for the Hundred Days campaign.
These reinforcements allowed the Canadian Corps to continue fighting in a series of battles, delivering victory after victory, from August to the end of the war on 11 November One general reason is increased complexity, which to a large extent makes superiors dependent on the good will of subordinates.
While it is true that such a trend is also felt in armed forces that still partly rely on conscription, its repercussions are much stronger in AVF because the performance of superiors is now assessed, at least in part, on the basis of their ability to elicit contract renewals among their subordinates. Another reason is the less pyramidal rank structure already alluded to, and shorter social distances between NCO and privates.
This is less in evidence, however, in elite army units where the gap between the social origins of officers and other ranks is larger, and command authority is more functional than elsewhere. However, much more fundamental is the exacerbation in AVF of cultural tensions, natural to military institutions, between identities based on the requirements of operational effectiveness and those induced by the need for meaningful integration into the parent societies.
On the one hand, martial identities are hardened by a social composition that is less representative than in was under the draft, by the cultural in-breeding that an AVF induces, the post-Cold War return to a strategy of action, high operational tempos, long separations from family, as well as by the outsourcing of support functions and resulting concentration of uniformed personnel on core military activities.
The restoration, from the early s onwards, of high prestige after a three-decade eclipse — surveys now regularly place the military among the most respected public institutions in most European countries, irrespective of organizational formats 22 — encourages the hardening of those facets of military identity which earn service members that heightened societal regard.
On the other hand, the fact that everything in AVF has a price-tag — in sharp contrast with the old days of conscription, when rank and file labour was abundant and cheap — encourages resort to management techniques that nothing differentiates from those in use elsewhere.
The consequence is that occupationalism — the attitude which holds that service is a job like any other — is now a higher risk in some quarters than before. Market philosophies and the ideological belief that public-private partnerships are more efficient — so typical of the post-Cold War era until recently — have made it more difficult for the military to maintain its functional ethos.
One, voiced by civilians, is to avoid a military staffed by the underprivileged in the rank and file, and the privileged in the officer corps, both culturally not least, ideologically estranged from mainstream society. The other, often heard in military circles, is to preclude societal indifference towards the armed services.
If it did, its public image would become skewed, and fail to attract mainstream youths, thus exacerbating its recruitment problems. Officers have for the past three decades or more been fairly representative socially, as well as become meaningfully integrated into society in terms of family lifestyles, and there is no sign that this is about to change unless the parameters are fundamentally altered.
For another, AVF are much more closely dependent on society for material and moral support than they were in the days of abundant, cheap and legally guaranteed conscript labour. However, the risk exists of a deterioration of the existing state of affairs. The elitization of officer corps entailed by low numbers would lengthen social distances with other ranks, and bring back authoritarian leadership styles — in contradiction to wider societal trends.
Vigilance is thus required. Lower force levels and numerous missions on distant theatres translate into much less visible forces at home. No longer in the public eye, they run the risk of being forgotten, despite the heightened prestige they have earned in the last two decades — with serious consequences on recruitment, or when it comes to budget debates. Constant public relations efforts are therefore necessary, especially at local level.
Avoidance of bad press, due to scandals 25 or statistics on former service members now homeless or in jail, is of the essence. One good way of securing a favourable public image is to cultivate the perception of the defence establishment as an avenue of upward mobility. This is reflected, again unlike the U.
Generally recognized and accepted is the need for accommodating both the functional imperative of unique norms and the socio-political imperative of closeness to the social environment — for being distinct, but not distant from society.
There are, as could be expected, those usually in the combat arms of armies who regard themselves as soldiers first and foremost and cultivate traditional martial identities, but a majority, when asked in interviews or questionnaire surveys, say they are citizens as well as soldiers. European military leaders are more often than not more politically flexible than their U. This notably happens, as has been observed in many countries, when military leaders and their subordinates feel that politicians at the top do not sufficiently take their professional viewpoints into account when formulating policy.
And indeed, under the Cold War, politicians had formed the habit of making decisions on defence, for instance using military expenditures as a major adjustment variable in economic policy, without consulting generals or admirals whose counsel, in the absence of operations, could be dispensed with. Repeated incidents over the last fifteen years resignations, public protests by flag rank officers in the press, etc. Another factor is that, whereas in the days of the draft the presence of citizens in arms serving with little at stake in terms of economic reward or identity interests discouraged cadres from publicly articulating such claims, they now feel freer to act as pressure groups A final factor resides in the dwindling proportion of civilian elites politicians, but also ranking bureaucrats, journalists, teachers and others with first-hand experience of military life after several decades of all-volunteer recruitment — a serious source of potential misunderstanding for the future witness the U.
In the strategic circumstances that have prevailed since the Berlin Wall went down, conscription has only survived in nations where citizenship norms have suffered less than they generally have elsewhere, or are still in the throes of unresolved tensions or threats on the periphery. The shift came as a surprise in a few key countries soon after , triggering a dramatic bandwagon effect which has since considerably altered the military scene throughout the continent.
Defence establishments have in the main shown great skills in negotiating the deep structural changes that come with such a major turning point. Initial recruitment figures allayed the fears expressed by military leaders used to the safety net of conscription. But soon, the law of downward pressures has made itself felt, and the hard realities of managing AVF have set in. The main obstacle inheres in pools of eligible and potentially willing young men that are too limited to fill the ranks. Part of the problem is that the services can guarantee promotion and secure long-term employment only to a minority.
Women are used in rising numbers to fill the gap and ensure quality , and some countries faced with serious shortfalls resort to enlisting foreigners or even prisoners upon the promise of naturalization or pardon. Managers soon learn the importance for the armed forces not to appear to be an employer of last resort, and understand that resettlement and the prospect of upward social mobility upon leaving the services help recruitment.
They come to value retention as a key substitute for scarce new recruits. Leadership styles become more liberal, and labour market realities induce management practices which erode the old normative character of martial institutions. Military culture registers the change in social composition, most visibly the increased presence of servicewomen. The basic tensions that undergird it are heightened by the shift. Remilitarization, partly due to the new strategic context, and increased civilianisation trends result in uneasy compromises or unresolved policy, social or even psychological contradictions.
It comes about in part on account of weakened citizenship norms, and further weakens them. It brings to the fore concerns about social and cultural isolation and estrangement of the armed forces. For that purpose, they are brought to reach out to society through advertising, open days or sponsoring of leisure activities. The reason for this is that the shift has confirmed and deepened the pragmatic professionalism of earlier decades. This makes for more flexibility on the part of officers in their relations with ministers, parliamentarians and civilian bureaucrats.
If it also encourages them to play political games, their pressure group tactics have so far remained well within the bounds of democratic practice, and underline their loyalty to the system. However, civilian-military misunderstandings are made more likely by reason of the lack, growing as a function of time, of any first-hand experience of military life among civilian elites.
Likewise, they have, by sheer necessity, greatly boosted the trend towards closer inter-service cooperation brought on by the post-Cold War strategic context. Flynn, George Q. The Draft, — Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, Flynn is one of the premier historians of conscription, and this is his seminal work. Westport, CT: Greenwood, A unique comparative analysis of the three major democratic powers and their conscription dynamic throughout the 20th century.
Granatstein, J. New York: Oxford University Press, Granatstein and Hitsman chronicle the fascinating dynamic of Canadian conscription in the modern era. Hay, Jeff. Military Draft. Detroit: Greenhaven, A general overview that includes a number of countries and a number of issues surrounding military conscription.
Karsten, Peter, ed. New York: Garland, Covers manpower issues in global military history from the era of Hessian conscription to the Cold War. Marble, Sanders, ed.
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