Browsing by Subject "military"

The Arctic environment is unique and hosts many economic opportunities. The environment is fragile and is home to many different animals, plants and indigenous people. The area has undergone periods of remilitarisation since the end of the cold war, and this is impacting local communities economically, environmentally and their social development. This research has been undertaken to assess the impact that military activity is having on these local communities. A literature review was undertaken in 3 key areas: Arctic sustainability, military sustainability and Arctic militarisation to identify relevant indicators that impact sustainable development. Sustainable development was defined using the 3 pillars from the Brundtland report, as economic, environmental and social. These indicators were collated to create a conceptual framework that was used to analyse two case study cities in the Arctic. These two cities were Fairbanks, in Alaska, and Severomorsk in Russia. These were chosen as economically and socially, they are very different, but they share the main similarity of being militarised Arctic cities. This meant the framework was tested on two different cities and in two different environments to test the validity and usefulness. The two case studies were built from reports, census information, statistical information and government reports. Although quantification was outside the scope of this research, observations were found from the data. Economically, the impact is positive. Military activity generates jobs, growth, infrastructure and military spending. The environmental impact is clearly negative. Military activity contaminates groundwater, soil, water and the local environment. The social impact is more ambiguous. Military activity helps foster community development but can impact personnel health. A discussion was undertaken on the effectiveness of the framework and improvement areas. The framework provided a good overall picture of activity but could be improved in some areas. These areas include reducing subjectivity in the construction phase, improved environmental data and time series data. The research was limited by time constraints and data availability in some impact areas.

Gender in the military is a critical yet controversial topic both socially and scholastically. However, in review of the literature regarding servicemembers’ transitions out of the military organization, the experience of women is often excluded or generalized from the experience of their male peers. This thesis applies a gender constructivist lens to military sociology and explores the narratives of women officers who have served in the Finnish Defence Forces. It adapted the Critical Incident Technique, as well as graphic elicitation, to conduct qualitative interviews with five respondents. Subsequent analysis revealed four types of critical events that illustrate entry into and exit from the Finnish Defence Forces during a career: prompting, retaining, bridging, and affirming events. These events, as well as participants’ descriptions of identity work, cannot be understood merely through factors relating to the Institutional/Occupational Thesis, but necessitate an understanding of the negotiation of gender throughout a career in the Finnish Defence Forces. The conclusions of this work refute the simplified perspective of gender equality in Finland and demand a gender-nuanced approach to future theoretical conceptualizations of military organizations, as well as the identities of individual servicemembers.

Militarised politics remains a single danger to democracy. Coups and military interventions accounts for 75% of global democratic failures and mark transitions to military rule. Against this background, this study investigates the unconstitutional November 2017 military-assisted political transition in Zimbabwe that resulted in the ouster of Mugabe from power to understand the ramifications of the succession process, outcomes and impacts on democratic governance. The study examines the inherent political conflicts between the military and civilian leaders where the military seek to secure dominant control in the political society despite constitutional obligations that the military remains apolitical. The principal objective of the thesis is to interrogate the growing decisive role and influence of the military in Zimbabwe’s contemporary politics. The study starts by critiquing the colonial historical aspects to understand the institutions that created the military dimensions. Mugabe shaped the governance political and electoral systems based on militarised colonial structures that further advanced his political monopoly instead of building effective political institutions based on the rule of law. Three broad research questions examined whether the military is undermining a democracy based political system in favour of authoritarianism, explores the domestic, regional and international factors that motivated the transition and the impacts and implications on democratic governance. The political transition and objective civilian control theories are deployed to expand the understanding of the complex military role in politics. In analysing the strategic interaction of authoritarian regimes and their opponents, the thesis noted that the military acted as a bureaucratic socio-political system rather than a professional institution in national politics. The findings concluded that military practices and actions in the distribution of power, intervention or meddling in internal domestic politics, governance and representation under authoritarian regimes has cross-cutting effects on the broader concept of democratic governance. There is substantial evidence that highlights that the military and political elites have remained leading actors in political life that sustains and maintains authoritarian structures. The thesis also observed that as an instrument of power transfer, the military establishment’s active participation strengthens the military as an autonomous political actor against Huntington’s objective civilian control, strengthening ZANU PF power retention to protect the institution’s strategic interests at the expense of national interests and human security, value systems, national progress and sustainable development. The empirical analysis reflects that militarized politics is a threat on democratic governance principles hence the need for ambitious institutional, political, legal and security sector reforms based on a model that strengthens human rights and guarantees the protection of civilian society from external threats and from the military institution itself.