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Abstract
The tactical level has become increasingly important in the conduct of contemporary complex military operations. Yet, the potential impact that this tactical level may have on domestic civil–military relations has been neglected. In this article, we focus on mechanisms by which low-level soldiers have acquired an increasing importance in tactical operations and we suggest that this may influence civil–military relations in the future. We argue that two phenomena deserve particular attention. These mechanisms are not new but they have had new effects by making it possible for soldiers to influence politics in sometimes unforeseen ways: the first is the strategic corporal and the second is the expansion of ancillary tasks. Our contribution lies at the interface between military sociology and security studies and seeks to show how the tactical level of warfare has become a fundamental context in which civil–military relations are enacted. Exploring these dynamics is fundamental to understanding under what conditions soldiers may interact with other actors in complex operations.
Notes
1. Complex operations have been defined in the introduction to this special issue.
3. http://www.isaf.nato.int/troop-numbers-and-contributions/index.php
4. By tactical level, we refer to ‘the level at which activities, battles and engagement are planned and executed to accomplish military objectives assigned to tactical formations and units’, NATO definition of tactics AAP06, NATO Glossary of Terms (2009) p. 2-T-2, available at http://www.nato.int/docu/stanag/aap006/aap-6–2009.pdf.
6. CitationMercer, Reputation and International Politics.
7. CitationDandeker, ‘Surveillance and Military Transformation’.
8. By political decision, we mean a decision that has consequences for or related to the government or the public affairs of a country and we see it as opposed to strategic, operational, or tactical levels.
9. CitationStrachan, ‘Making Strategy’.
10. CitationFiner, The Man on horseback; CitationKing, Transformation of Europe's Armed Forces; CitationAbrahamsson, Military Professionalization and Political Power.
11. Abrahamsson, Military Professionalization and Political Power, 140.
12. CitationSmith, The Utility of Force.
13. CitationResteigne, ‘Still Connected in Operations?’
14. CitationBurk, ‘Democratic Civil-Military Relations’, 9.
15. CitationSowers, ‘Beyond the Soldier and the State’.
16. Smith, The Utility of Force.
17. Dandeker, ‘Surveillance and Military Transformation’, 239.
18. CitationRuffa, ‘Afghan War Lessons’; Dandeker, ‘Surveillance and Military Transformation’.
19. CitationResteigne and Soeters, ‘Managing Military’.
20. CitationPorter, ‘A Matter of Choice’.
21. Dandeker, ‘Surveillance and Military Transformation’.
22. Dandeker, ‘Surveillance and Military Transformation’, 239–40.
23. Dandeker, ‘Surveillance and Military Transformation’, 240.
24. CitationRuffa, ‘What Peacekeepers Think’.
25. For instance, CitationRuffa and Vennesson, ‘Fighting and Helping?’
26. CitationKrulak, ‘The Strategic Corporal’, 18.
27. Abrahamsson, Military Professionalization and Political Power, 146.
28. Abrahamsson, Military Professionalization and Political Power, 146
29. CitationIgnazi et al., ‘Italian Military Operations Abroad’; CitationRuffa, Imagining War.
30. King, ‘Transformation of European Armed Forces’, 275.
31. See ‘Slimming the Ranks’, Bagehot, The Economist, 19–25 January 2013.
32. This is an old debate from the post-Cold War onwards in the literature, especially when peacekeeping seemed to be the new core business. CitationBoene, ‘How Unique Should the Military Be?’
33. For a good overview, see CitationFeaver, ‘Civil-Military Relations’.
34. Angstrom, ‘The changing norms of civil and military and civil-military relations theory’, and Haldén, ‘Fundamental but not eternal: The public-private distinction, from normative projects to cognitive grid in Western political thought’.
35. CitationRosén, ‘Moving Beyond’.
36. CitationLyall and Wilson, ‘Rage Against the Machine’.
37. King, ‘Transformation of European Armed Forces’.
38. CitationDandeker in ‘The End of Western Military Intervention? What “success” means in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya’.