Between the modern civilian world

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and the modern military world, there has always been a certain amount of
friction. This effect seems to be increasing recently. It frequently
leads to public debates on military issues based on misunderstanding,
bad information and prejudice, which makes these debates completely
fruitless in solving any real-world problems involving the military. On
one side of the dividing line one usually finds the military
establishment itself, the defense industry, and politicians with various
reasons for a pro-military stance. The other side is made up of a
changing collection of groups and political views promoting (among other
issues) peace, cost saving through cuts in military spending, and the
solution of problems by means other than military ones. The public, as
it is, is mostly found on this side. As is often the case in political
discussion, debates between these sides are clouded by the obstacles
mentioned above, and further muddled by media reporting which is
short-sighted, driven by "today's big story", and the inability to
handle issues which cannot be explained in a fifteen-second sound bite.

Public Distrust vs. New Roles for the Military

One reason for the public distrust of the military and all things
connected with it is the decreasing public awareness of military issues
in general after the end of the Cold War, connected with the widespread
belief that now that the war was won, the huge and costly armies
defending the free world would become superfluous and the resources
needed to sustain them would be available for more sensible things.
Another reason may be the fact that fewer and fewer people have
first-hand knowledge of the military in any form, and therefore see it
as a strange, potentially dangerous subculture from which "normal"
citizens ought to distance themselves. Even in countries where
conscription is still the norm, as in Germany, only a small percentage
of each class of potential inductees actually serves in the armed
forces, and then mostly with the aim of passing the required time with
the least amount of hassle.

Since world events in the last couple of years demonstrate that the
continuously dangerous, but relatively certain and well-understood, threat picture of the Cold
War was replaced not by "Peace in our time", but by an uncertain,
unstable, and baffling situation in which sources, directions and means
of threats to peace and stability are murky and ever changing. The
question is no longer the existential one of Peace vs. War, armed
stand-off vs. clouds of nuclear warheads raining from the sky, Yes or No,
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks or Mutual Assured Destruction. This has
been replaced by a host of questions of lesser global, but greater local
relevance: Will my neighbour burn down my house tonight? Should we
lift a hand if our left-hand neighbour burns down our right-hand
neighbour's house? Should we shout for help, or try to help ourselves?
Many of these questions, in a European as well as in a global security
context (or, if you will, "maintaining-peace context"), have potential
answers that involve the use of military force of some kind.

Understanding the Military

The most unique capability of military forces is the ability to deploy
large numbers of personnel to remote locations and supply and maintain them
there. Further tasks can then be performed by these forces, limited
mainly by available resources and, to some extent, existing doctrine and
tactics. The things that modern military forces can do, and the ways
they usually go about doing these things, is mostly unknown outside the
circles of specialists and professionals actually working in this field.
This is the main reason for many of the misunderstandings in the debates
about military issues. An action or a piece of information that is
quite clear and understandable to someone knowledgeable in the field
becomes utterly incomprehensible and even crazy when viewed from the
outside. This outside view, of course, basically puts this action or
piece of information out of context, which is never a good idea when one
tries to understand a difficult issue to reach an opinion or find a
solution to a problem.

This planned series of articles is an attempt to blow away some of the clouds
lingering over the rethorical battlefields. It tries to present
overviews about some specific issues and problems involving the military
in a general sense. This will include items on the political sphere
surrounding the military, the workings of military forces, on specific
weapons, systems, tactics and their associated problems, and other things. Some articles
may be driven by the "today's big story", as defined by the mass media,
some will be there for background information. It is hoped that they
present an unbiased view of the issues discussed.