Towards a new German military identity? Change and continuity of military representations of self and other(s) in Germany

Leonhard, Nina

doi:10.1080/23337486.2017.1385586

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The Bundeswehr's new leadership philosophy of "inner leadership" (Innere Führung) was designed as an antidote against militarism and the abuse of the armed forces for aggressive and/or anti-democratic ends. At its core is the ideal of the "citizen in uniform" (Staatsbürger in Uniform) who is above all beholden to democratic values and the rule of law and who fights (only) in their defense (Hoffmann and Longhurst 1999;Leonhard 2019).…”

Section: German Antimilitarism the Avf And Military Recruitmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To be sure, from a military sociology perspective, this is entirely unremarkable. The Bundeswehr's civil military culture was deliberately installed to guard against any potential detachment of the military from German society and its liberal democratic valueswith the larger aim of preventing the Bundeswehr ever becoming a hotbed of militarism (Bald 2002;Leonhard 2019).…”

Section: Conclusion: Militarism With the Handbrake Appliedmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Militarizing antimilitarism? Exploring the gendered representation of military service in German recruitment videos on social media

Stengel

Shim

2021

International Feminist Journal of Politics

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This article analyzes the gendered representation of military service in the German YouTube series Die Rekruten (DR) (The Recruits), a popular web series produced on behalf of the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) for recruitment purposes, which accompanies 12 navy recruits during their basic training. The article is situated within research on masculinity and the military, in particular military recruitment. It supplements current scholarship by studying a previously neglected case that is of particular interest given Germany's antimilitarist culture, which should make military recruitment and military public relations more difficult. The article asks how military service is represented in DR, what its discursive effects are, and what role (if any) masculinity plays in this process. We find support for recent feminist research on military masculinities (including in military recruitment) that emphasizes ambiguity and contradiction. What distinguishes the construction of military masculinity in DR from, for example, recruitment advertisements in the United States or the United Kingdom is its markedly civil character. This not only broadens the military's appeal for a more diverse audience but also increases the legitimacy of the military and its activities. It does so by concealing the violence that has for the past two decades also been a very real part of what the Bundeswehr does.

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Section: German Antimilitarism the Avf And Military Recruitmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion: Militarism With the Handbrake Appliedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Militarizing antimilitarism? Exploring the gendered representation of military service in German recruitment videos on social media

Stengel

Shim

2021

International Feminist Journal of Politics

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“…After unification, former East German (GDR) soldiers were incorporated into the Bundeswehr after careful vetting and ideological de-programming (Leonhard 2008). Nina Leonhard (2017) explains the importance for the Bundeswehr of the concept of 'Innere Fuhrung' (literally, inner guide or guidance), which signals a 'civil' military organization based on democratic values, diminishing the distance between civil society and the military and thereby avoiding the illegitimate use of violence. For soldiers, this ideal involves a willingness to protect the democratic values connected to the Bundeswehr but also allows them to refuse orders that go against their own conscience.…”

Section: Germany and Sweden: Strategic And Cultural Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rationalizing military death: the politics of the new military monuments in Berlin and Stockholm

Åse

2020

Critical Military Studies

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How do state monuments secure public consent to war efforts? This article examines the official military monuments constructed in Berlin in 2009 and Stockholm in 2013 in reaction to Germany's and Sweden's participation in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan (2001Afghanistan ( -2014. Monuments express powerful truth claims and participate in the reproduction and transformation of war-justificatory narratives. By comparing the Berlin and Stockholm monuments, the article demonstrates their engagement with national identities and historical experience and their management of gendered military ideals. The Swedish monument Restare by sculptor Monica Dennis Larsen is white and human-sized, has an organic shape and sits in a pastoral setting, while architect Andreas Meck's massive and austere German Ehrenmal der Bundeswehr is strictly rectangular and placed near military buildings. The article's comparative analysis foregrounds the planning, names and dedications, locations, and designs of the monuments and the specific ways that they address individual death. A central conclusion is that these monuments repress gendered war histories and the masculinization of the armed forces. Restare disallows Sweden's historical experience of gendered militarization and bolsters the country's peace identity so that contemporary military violence appears publicly acceptable. The Bundeswehr monument forestalls linkages between Germany's contemporary military identity and the country's history of authoritarian regimes. By invoking neither military masculinity nor the feminized homeland, the monument orchestrates the separation of contemporary military activity from that in the German past.

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“…At the same time, Danish soldiers do not live at the bases (only during their training), which is the case in a number of other countries i.e. the U.S., Germany, or the U.K. (Enloe 1989;Leonhard 2017;Woodward 2003;. In this sense, the soldiers change from a military setting to a civilian setting on a daily basis, unless they are deployed, and their children attend the same daycare, schools, etc.…”

Section: The Insider/outsider Dilemmamentioning

confidence: 99%

“We Don’t See Gender, Only Soldiers!” - Negotiating Military Identities in Narratives on Gender, Peace, and Security

Bennike¹

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October 31. 2000 marked a significant date in work on gender, peace, and security. Until then, women's experiences, perspectives, and the particular consequences of conflict and war for women were more or less absent from military work in peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions. However, this was about to change, as the Security Council on this date adopted United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace, and Security, which marked the first of nine UN resolutions as of 2021 that have the intention of bringing gender perspectives to international peacekeeping (and peacebuilding) missions. With UNSCR 1325, gendered implications of conflict, peace, and security, which had been part of feminist activists and Feminist International Relations scholars' agenda for decades (Cohn 2004;Schott 2013;Shepherd 2008;Gibbings 2011) began to gain influence in UN military missions, and later NATO missions, and grew into an element of peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions, which today is difficult for member states to disregard.Being part of the ´friendly´ and cosmopolitan-minded North in terms of military work and politically manifesting a commitment to international military work through alliances with NATO and the UN, Denmark situates itself as a military force that albeit it relatively small size, is an active player on the international area and stresses a commitment to UNSCR 1325 i.e. by being the first country in 2005 to adopt the resolution. Nonetheless, despite articulating a national and institutional position as a frontrunner in regard to gender and military work, Denmark has faced critique from the UN, as well as scholars and practitioners. One of the main points has been the lack of focus on domestic issues with gender equality in the Danish Armed Forces as well as the lack of concrete actions to combat discrimination. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence, and Ministry of Justice 2014). In the National Action Plan (NAP) from 2020, which covers the period 2020-2024, the Ministries have taken this critique into account and presents an ambition to "walk the talk" (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence, and Ministry of Justice 2000).These contradicting national and institutional narratives of being a frontrunner on gender equality and at the same time face critique for this particular point in regard to how the Danish military works internally create certain conflicting narratives on military work and military identities within the Danish Armed Forces. These conflicting narratives have the potential to influence the everyday lives of Danish soldiers and their understandings of their military identities, military work, and duties. It also leads to challenges in the negotiations over military identities including the incorporation of other gendered bodies into the force, let alone adapting to management policies at the local level and the potential discrepancies between practice and policy.

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Towards a new German military identity? Change and continuity of military representations of self and other(s) in Germany

Cited by 10 publications

References 19 publications

Militarizing antimilitarism? Exploring the gendered representation of military service in German recruitment videos on social media

Militarizing antimilitarism? Exploring the gendered representation of military service in German recruitment videos on social media

Rationalizing military death: the politics of the new military monuments in Berlin and Stockholm

“We Don’t See Gender, Only Soldiers!” - Negotiating Military Identities in Narratives on Gender, Peace, and Security

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