Armées contemporaines

KEYWORDS: WAR - ARMIES - DEFENCE POLICY - ARMAMENT - POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY OF ARMIES

The army remains a key institution of modern states and the question of its relationship with political power retains its sharpness, regardless of the nature of these relations: friction between the military hierarchy and the civilian authorities in a democracy, tense relations in times of war, etc..


How has changed the relationship between states and the army while the latter experienced deep transformations and reforms over the last twenty years? What role do they play in military defense policy and in the functioning of political systems? What is the impact of professional armies and the outsourcing of some of their functions? What are the sociological characteristics of the group formed by the military? What motivates their interventions in politics? Who control them in a democracy? The globalization of international relations did change that control?

Jean Joana is a professor of political science at the University of Montpellier-1. His research focuses on the comparison of defense policies in different European countries and the United States.