Redefining Soldierly Role Models in Germany

In: Armed forces & society, Volume 37, Issue 4, p. 680-700

Abstract

The developments global politics has experienced over the past twenty years have altered the conditions for being a soldier in Germany like in many other countries as well. The way in which national defense had been understood lost plausibility with the end of the Cold War. Conflict and threat scenarios changed and the missions of the armed forces were largely reconceptualized to include multinational crisis management. The effects of this redefinition of tasks and of the unconventional military engagements are as yet underexplored. In particular, there are gaps in our knowledge of how institutional regulations and the formulation of the norms which inform social practices in society and the armed forces relate to one another under the changed political circumstances of contemporary military missions. The article addresses the related changes with particular consideration of the ways in which soldiers in Germany make new sense of their contemporary tasks and roles.