Academic literature on the topic 'Europe, Western – Armed Forces – Women'

The recruitment and retention of well-qualified military personnel are essential for any armed forces. This is even more true because most armed forces in Europe have shifted from a conscript-based to an all-volunteer format. Based on presentations and discussions during the 14th ERGOMAS Conference in Athens, Greece, June 26-30, 2017, this special publication of Contemporary Military Challenges focuses on the challenges of recruiting and retaining interested young people in the armed forces. In the ERGOMAS Working Group “Recruitment and Retention”, chaired by Tibor Szvircsev Tresch, 20 papers from different researchers were presented. In the five conference sessions on this issue, we had interesting discussions on various related topics. Session 1 dealt with the subject of minorities in the armed forces, and especially how they can be integrated and how they can participate in the system. In the next session, recruitment and retention in the reserve forces stood as the theme of the presentations. Politics and the military: mutual influence and the effect on military personnel was the topic of session 3, and session 4 analysed the motivational factors and reasons for attrition. The last session focused attention on recruitment and retention strategies. From these five sessions we were able to choose five presentations from all of these topics to adapt as journal articles. In the five articles offered in this journal, recruitment and retention are broadly discussed in historical terms and also based on the most recent research results. In military sociology research has generally addressed the recruitment of volunteers into the active force, but the reserve components and the conscription system should also be reviewed in detail. This special issue also analyzes reserve forces and conscription systems with regard to recruitment and retention. In the past not much attention has been paid to the topic of recruitment and retention in Europe. This was also true during the time of the Cold War for the conscript-based armed forces; the recruitment of new personnel was guaranteed by the conscript system. The advantages of this system were that the conscripted young men (in Europe only men were obliged to enter the armed forces; for women this was on a volunteer basis, and in some countries it was even forbidden for women to join the armed forces, or they could join only in auxiliary positions) could be socialized during their military service and also convinced that a professional military position could be a career for them. In other words, through the conscript system the armed forces were able to win new personnel who could imagine staying in the armed forces as long-term employees. One consequence of this was that the armed forces did not have to recruit new personnel on the free job market. The ‘in-house’ recruiting system provided by conscription was in most cases sufficient to catch enough personnel and – very importantly – well-qualified staff. But with the end of the Cold War and new missions, armed forces had to cover new tasks. These new tasks also required, on the one hand, personnel who were able and willing to stay abroad for a longer time, and on the other hand, new skills to cope with the new circumstances in the missions abroad. With the conflicts in the 1990s such as the Gulf War, the Somali Civil War with the United Missions UNOSMO I and II, the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War with the involvement of NATO, Western European armed forces had huge problems sending qualified personnel to these crises. Paradoxically the European armed forces were at that time much bigger in the number of soldiers than they are today, but in almost every country it was forbidden to send conscripted soldiers on missions abroad. Therefore the situation was that after the end of the Cold War these armed forces were not fit for the new tasks. Through the experience gained within these missions, a process of multi-nationalization and professionalization took place in the European armed forces. Multi-nationalization meant that it was more important for many states to join alliances, especially NATO. In a multi-national framework the aspect of greater interoperability between different armed forces was given heed. This led to more professional structures. This structural change is strongly reflected in the number of armed forces that have suspended conscription. In 1990, just four out of 26 European countries had an all-volunteer force, i.e. no conscription system. Today, most European states have switched to an all-volunteer format for their armed forces. This situation has altered the manning system. The flow of newly conscripted recruits disappeared, and personnel had to be found on the free market. At the same time as the armed forces were changing from conscript-based mass armies to leaner all-volunteer forces, civil society was engaged in a process of changing values. Traditional values such as obedience, discipline, and subordination became less significant for young people, and values such as autonomy and self-determination were esteemed much more. Some reasons for this were urbanization, an increasing level of education, and greater differentiation and specialization in the working environment. This led to a discrepancy between civil values that focus on the individual, and military values, which refer to the group dimension. At the moment the consequences of this process can be seen in the difficulty recruiting military personnel in sufficient quantity and quality. Questions related to human resources have become existential for armed forces; not only filling positions in the armed forces, but also adapting them to the new missions in a multicultural environment requires the urgent efforts of human resources development. Attention is now directed towards widening the recruitment pool. Women and young people with a migrant background should complement the traditional recruitment profile of a young, white male. Or in other words, the new recruiting targets must be on an equal footing with the old traditional recruitment basis. With that in mind the European armed forces must alter their recruitment outlook so that they will be attractive to these new target groups. The papers and research presented in this journal may help to broaden the understanding of this new recruitment and retention process. Have a good read!

Ever since it won its independence, Slovenia has made great efforts to distance itself geographically and politically from the region, nowadays also known as the Western Balkans. In the past twenty years, most of Slovenia’s efforts have been directed towards becoming a European Union and NATO member. The Slovenian Armed Forces followed the lead by gathering its experiences and knowledge mostly in the Western Europe and the USA as well as in different military missions and operations led by the UN, NATO, the EU and the OSCE. When the situation in the former Yugoslavia settled and at least fragile peace was restored, newly formed countries decided to join the PfP programme and later on NATO (Croatia is already a member, while Serbia does not wish to become one, yet) and the EU. In such circumstances, Slovenia and the Slovenian Armed Forces saw a new opportunity to support these countries in their Euro-Atlantic ambitions and help them with security sector reforms.

Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union sought to reestablish its control over the areas of Eastern Europe that it had occupied prior to the RussoGerman war. These areas included Western Ukraine, Byelorussia, and the Baltic States of Lithuanian, Latvia, and Estonia.2 In these regions, the Soviets found wellorganized underground resistance movements that were determined to hold off the complete Sovietization of their homelands, a task the Soviets had initially begun in 1940 and 1941, but which had been interrupted by war. While complete victory over the Soviets was recognized as an unreachable goal, these resistance fighters fought on in the hope that either the Soviets would grow weary of waging war or, as the above statement by Juozas Luksa suggests, the Western powers would return to finish the job of liberating Europe. Therefore, the period of 1944 to 1953 in this region is marked by an intense conflict between Eastern European guerrillas and Soviet counterinsurgency forces.

In the summer of 2021, a flood of unprecedented intensity occurred in Western Europe. This article describes the German crisis response mechanism to natural disasters with a focus on the deployment and tasks of the German Armed Forces and analyzes challenges and controversies connected with the internal use of the military in Germany after the flood.

After the end of World War II leaders of the West European countries had realised the necessity to create new security frameworks, thus making the security of the continent the concern of the Europeans themselves. However, immediately after it had been formed the North Atlantic Alliance, as a trans-Atlantic defence shield against the danger from the "communist East", became the central security component in Europe. Just after the end of the Cold War and disappearance of the "danger from the East" the European leaders initiated the process of creation of the new European defence system. The system would be designed in such a way not to jeopardise the position of the NATO, improving at the same time the security and stability in the continent. In the first part of the article the author considers the course of European integration in the second half of the last century that proceeded through creation of institutions preceding the establishment of the European Union. During the period of creation of this specific form of action performed by the European states at the internal and international levels, the deficiency of integration in the military field was notable. In that regard, the author stresses the role of the Western European Union as an alliance for collective defence of West European countries. The second part of the paper discusses the shaping of the EU security component through the provisions on the Common Foreign and Security Policy, which are included in the EU agreements. The Maastricht Treaty defined the Common Foreign and Security Policy as an instrument to reach agreement by member states in the defence field. The Amsterdam Treaty confirmed the role of this mechanism expanding the authorities resulting from it. The Treaty of Nice supplements the existing mechanism by a new military and political structure that should help implement the decisions made by the European Union institutions in the military field. In the third part of the article, the author presents the facts concerning the establishment and internal organisation of the Eurocorps. The creation of this military formation took place in early 1990s and was initiated by the two states of "the old Europe" - Germany and France. The authors also emphasises that the establishment of this formation is the first step towards creation of the armed forces in Europe. The fourth part of the paper treats the Rapid Reaction Force that was established by the Helsinki Agreement (1999). It became operative in early 2003 and its basic aim is to prevent the outbreak of crises in the region and to improve stability in Europe. In spite of the opinions that the establishment of such a force is the skeleton for creation of the European armed forces, the author thinks that, at least in the near future, they will not be a rival to the NATO. In his opinion, their possible military missions will be carried out only when the alliance takes no interest in being engaged in them.

After regaining independence in 1991, Estonia had to define its policy toward neighbours and set out a clear path regarding security issues. It is the smallest country in Europe that shares a border with Russia – a nation with which Estonia shares a common history with a negative outcome, and contemporary relations leave much to be desired. It is a country aware of its limited capabilities, which does not mean that it is passively waiting for the situation to develop. Through its policy, it is constantly striving to shape the security environment, both within its borders and in the Baltic Sea region. Estonia’s accession to the European Union and NATO has permanently tied it to Western Europe. It is one of few countries that take a holistic approach to security that engages the entire society and, simultaneously, a place where citizens understand their role and the fact that independence is not given once and for all.

Spreminjanje vloge vojsk v evropskih državah pod vplivom dogajanj po hladni vojni postavlja številna vprašanja tako na teoretični kot na praktični ravni. Na spremembo vloge vojsk pomembno vplivajo predvsem ozemeljska (pre)razporeditev konfrontacij in konfliktov, spreminjanje podobe oboroženih konfliktov ter povečanje pripravljenosti zahodnih držav za vojaško posredovanje v soseščini. Prispevek obravnava teoretična razmišljanja o vlogi vojsk v evropskih državah, prikaže pa tudi nekatere analitične poglede na vlogo vojsk v okviru Nata in EU. Najbolj pomembna sprememba glede vloge vojsk je zmanjševanje potrebe po obrambi ozemlja ter pojav precej različnih in pogosto nejasno definiranih nalog. Tem spremembam pa morajo države prilagoditi tudi obrambne doktrine ter strukturo vojsk. Postopno slovo od ozemeljske obrambne vloge vojske za oblikovalce obrambne politike odpira vrsto vprašanj tako glede odnosa med vojsko in njenim družbenim okoljem kot tudi glede njene notranje organiziranosti. The changing roles of armed forces in European countries, which are influenced by the post- Cold War developments, have opened many questions both, on the theoretical and practical level. The role of the armed forces is influenced mostly by: the territorial (re)location of confrontations and conflicts, the changing feature of armed conflicts and increased willingness of Western states to intervene in their neighbourhood. The article discusses theoretical considerations on the role of armed forces in European countries and presents also some analytical views on the role of armed forces military roles in the framework of NATO and EU. The most important change concerning the role of armed forces is a diminishing need for territorial defence and the emergence of different and frequently vaguely defined tasks of European states’ armed forces. These changes require also the adaptation of defence doctrines and military structure. A gradual farewell to the territorial defence function of the armed forces raises numerous questions for defence policy-makers, which concern the relations between the armed forces and their social environment as well as the military internal organisational structure.

The article contains the results of research on the development of foreign and Russian history. The work is based on materials of monographs and scientific articles in Russian. The main task of its analysis is to reveal what intellectual processes influenced historians. The sphere of scientific interests of the given scientists includes the history of the state, the fiscal-military state and the processes of formation of modern armed forces in Western Europe and Russia in the XV-XIX centuries.

Ukraine, as a democratic and independent state, chose its own path of development, sought to enter the global system of security and development, and unreasonably experienced Russian armed aggression. As a result of the war, the economy in the east and south of Ukraine has been destroyed, business is being moved and/or reduced, people are killed and forced to migrate. The consequences of this are a significant reduction in budget revenues, along with a significant increase in economic spending, especially defense spending. This prompted the Ukrainian government to seek international military and political assistance. The unity of the Ukrainian people and the defense and security forces of Ukraine became an irresistible force supported by Western partner countries. The driving force behind the transformation of Ukraine into the strongest state in Europe is the renewal of its military potential. Based on the facts and current statistics, the possibilities of updating the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the face of Russia's armed aggression are analyzed. This made it possible to state that international military-political assistance to Ukraine has become the determining direction for the renewal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the formation of a powerful defense potential of our state, maintaining security and political stability in the world. The economic, military-scientific, social, moral-psychological (spiritual) directions of the renewal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the conditions of Russia's armed aggression are singled out. At the same time, it is proposed to consider international military-political assistance to our country as the determining direction for updating the Armed Forces of Ukraine in war conditions. Based on statistical information, an analysis and ranking of partner countries was carried out depending on the size of their military assistance to Ukraine. The trend of providing military assistance to Ukraine by partner countries has been identified and clearly illustrated. The analysis showed that partner countries with a high level of GDP and defense spending did not always provide appropriate military assistance to Ukraine in the context of deterring Russia's military aggression.

The 2011 Vienna Document 2011 on confidence- and security-building measures remains one of the cornerstones of European security. It enhances trust and confidence among participating states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (osce) and allows for intrusive verification measures by the osce states. Despite the significant success achieved by many osce participating States in increasing the number of women in their armed forces, the number of women who participate in military verification (under this Document) remains low. This article contains information regarding international military cooperation related to the verification of military activities in which women’s involvement remains low. It also provides suggestions for further research concerning the reasons why so few women participate in the military verification activities and for ways to increase their participation.

Thesis (MPA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As early as the unification of South Africa in 1910 enforced discrimination in the military has been an issue that affected both race and gender. The advent of democracy in South Africa has brought fundamental changes in spheres of governance. One of these changes is the transformation of the public service of which the Department of Defence, in particular the South African National Defence Force, is part. The constitutional and judicial imperatives stipulated to the government departments to be representative of the demographic composition of the population of South Africa. The Department of Defence has provided a policy on equal opportunity and affirmative action to redress the racial and gender imbalances of the past, to protect individual and groups against unfair discrimination andto work towards achievement of employment equity. The study seeks to establish the extent and influence of gender discrimination in the South African National Defence with particular reference to the SA Army's Western Province Command. To achieve this, the attitude of the middle and top management of the WP Command towards the utilisation or employment of women in combat roles were assessed. The study also investigated whether the mentioned management does encourage women to be involved or participate in combat roles. Data was collected from respondents by means of a structured questionnaire consisting of 58 questions (plus 8 unstructured questions). The sample was drawn from the SA Army's WP Command and the focus was on middle and top management. Findings of the study indicate that the SA Army's WP Command's middle and top management supports the equality of men and women in general, but is reluctant to allow women to participate in combat roles side by side with their male counterparts. Although there seems to be an understanding and support for the policies of addressing equal opportunities, traditional cultural beliefs or stereotypes about women still shape and influence the acceptance and the non-acceptance of women in combat roles Finally, recommendations highlight issues of consideration when drafting policy vis-a-vis the utilisation of women as combat soldiers.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Reeds so vroeg as Uniewording van Suid Afrika in 1910 was geforseerde diskriminasie binne die weermag 'n kwessie wat beide ras en geslag beïnvloed het. Die totstandkoming van 'n demokrasie in Suid Afrika het fundamentele veranderinge in die sfeer van Staatsbestuur te weeg gebring. Een van hierdie veranderinge het betrekking op die transformasie van die staatsdiens, waarvan die Suid Afrikaanse Nasionale Weermag 'n deel is. Daar rus 'n konstitusionele en juridiese verpligting op staatsdepartmente om die demografiese samestelling van die bevolking van Suid Afrika te weerspieel. Die Department van Verdediging het 'n beleid van gelyke geleenthede en regstellende optrede ontwikkelom die rasse- en geslagsongelykhede van die verlede aan te spreek. Die beleid poog om individue en groepe teen onregverdige diskriminasie te beskerm en om billikheid in die werksomgewing te verseker. Hierdie studie poog om die omvang en invloed van geslagsdiskriminasie in die Suid- Afrikaanse Nasionale .Weermag te bepaal, met spesifieke verwysing na Kommandement Westelike Provinsie in die Suid-Afrikaanse Leer. Ten einde die omvang en invloed te bepaal is die houdings van middel- en topbestuur van Kommandement WP beoordeel met betrekking tot die aanwending of benutting van vrouens in 'n gevegsrol. Die studie poog om te bepaal of genoemde bestuurders vrouens aanmoedig om betrokke te raak by, of deel te neem in 'n gevegsrol. Data insameling het geskied deur middel van 'n gestruktureerde vraelys wat 58 vrae bevat het (Daar was ook 8 ongestruktureerde vrae ingesluit). Die steekproef is getrek uit lede van die Suid Afrikaanse Leer verbonde aan Kommandement Westelike Provinsie, met die spesifieke fokus op middel- en topbestuur. Bevindings van die studie dui daarop dat middel- en topbestuur van Kommandement Westelike Provinsie (SA Leer) oor die algemeen gelykheid tussen mans en dames ondersteun. Hulle is egter onwillig om vrouens toe te laat om sy aan sy met hul manlike eweknie in 'n gevegsrol te funksioneer. Alhoewel dit blyk dat daar begrip en steun bestaan vir die beleid wat gelyke geleenthede voorskryf, bepaal tradisionele kulturele oortuigings of stereotipes met betrekking tot vroue steeds die aanvaarding of nie-aanvaarding van vrouens in 'n gevegsrol. Die finale aanbeveling beklemtoon dat daar sekere kwessies is wat oorweging moet geniet wanneer 'n beleid ten opsigte van die benutting van vroue as soldate in 'n gevegsrol, opgestel word.

Defence date: 12 March 2004
Examining Board: Philippe Schmitter (European University Institute, supervisor) ; Donatella della Porta (European University Institute) ; Fabrizio Battistelli (Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza") ; Maria Carrilho (Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa, Lisbon)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Most Second World War historiography on female prisoners of war comes from the relatively small numbers of military nurses captured by the Japanese in the Far East. In Western Europe, women were mobilized into auxiliary services and were seldom anywhere near the front line. Indeed, there were only one or two cases of female prisoners of war falling into German hands. Towards the end of the war, the Germans mobilized huge numbers of women into auxiliary roles and into anti-aircraft units. They became prisoners alongside the rest of the German armed forces in May 1945—in either British, American, or Russian hands—and thus endured very different fates at the hands of their captors. On the Eastern Front, German forces encountered female Russian soldiers from the outset of Operation Barbarossa and captured large numbers—many of whom shared the deprivations, ill treatment, and death meted out to their male counterparts.

By early 1942 the Germans gradually saw the advantages of Soviet prisoners as cheap labour, and even as a source of additional manpower for the hard-pressed armed forces. They were therefore deployed in the eastern territories and even in the Reich itself—albeit still given much less consideration than their Allied counterparts. Despite their appalling treatment, there were examples of resistance by Soviet prisoners, including sabotage and even some cases of open insurrection. Ultimately anything up to 1.3 million prisoners were ostensibly persuaded to join German military formations, either as an escape from the appalling conditions of their captivity, or because they could not expect any mercy from their own side after the publication of Stalin’s Order No. 270, or because they had little sympathy for communism, or because they saw the war as a means of pursuing their own nationalist agendas against the forces of Russian imperialism. This helps to explain how large numbers of former Soviet soldiers were captured in NW Europe by the Western powers during and after 1944 which was later to create diplomatic and political problems when their repatriation was being contemplated.

Indigenous people along the tributary rivers of the Ohio River created a functioning society that responded to their needs and was shaped by their cultural traditions. Indians engaged in rational and deliberate social action. Following contact with Europeans, the economic structure of the Ohio River region changed. The evolution of an Indian-controlled fur trade led to prosperity rather than decline. A complex, agrarian landscape created in great part by Indian women supported and sustained a village world where women controlled the food supply, processed furs, and influenced the fur trade exchange process. This prosperous village world was undermined in the 1780s and 1790s by the terrorizing and plunder of Indian villages, which disrupted agrarianism and the fur trade. Federal support for frontier violence and the kidnapping of Indian women threatened to undermine this world but simultaneously encouraged Indians to ban together in a Pan-Indian Confederacy and inflict two disastrous defeats on U.S. armed forces. The success of Indian resistance gave President Washington a reason to overcome public resistance against the creation of a large, standing army. Victory over Indigenous people finally took place at the Battle of at Fallen Timbers in 1794. However, this defeat did not signal demise, and western movement was only fully secured following the War of 1812.

The investigation, charge, prosecution, and rehabilitation of female terrorists is a controversial subject because patriarchal values widely drive the context of jihadi violence. Thousands of women made their way from over 80 countries worldwide to the Islamic State realms in Syria and Iraq, with Central Asia accounting for 20 per cent of this migration. As the forces of ISIS were retreating – and even before – Central Asian countries were keen to repatriate women and children from Syria and Iraq. In contrast to Western Europe, public opinion was supportive of these humanitarian operations. This study is informed by the debriefing of approximately fifty of these women, in a context in which they have already faced the legal repercussions for “joining” the ranks of ISIS. The women interviewed hail from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan; it is clear women left an overwhelmingly patriarchal context to find a dehumanisingly misogynistic jihadi society. Their agency as second-class ISIS “citizens” needs to be systematically explored to inform effective counterterrorism strategy, be it profiling, legislation, preemptive intervention and rehabilitation policies.

The benign international order that the British had helped to create by 1926 required careful management in the second half of the 1920s. Contrary to popular misconceptions Britain did not disarm after 1918. It did demobilize its wartime armed forces, but throughout the 1920s it maintained sufficient air, sea, and land power to give its diplomacy the credibility it needed. Consequently, policy-makers were confident that they could negotiate from strength and achieved most of what they wanted in those regions of the world, Western Europe, the Mediterranean and Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and its environs, and the western Pacific, which most mattered to them. They did this with Mussolini over the Red Sea littoral, and with the French over the future of Germany. They could wage a cold war against the Soviet Union, they could begin building a formidable fortress at Singapore to deter the Japanese, and they could project sufficient power along the coast of China to protect what they regarded as their vital interests. At the Coolidge Naval Conference they were strong enough to resist American pressure to hamstring their naval power, and at the London Naval Conference in 1930 they were clever enough to repeat what they had done at Washington in 1921–2, and make an international naval arms limitation agreement work for, rather than against, their security. By the end of the 1920s Britain was the most powerful of the great powers.