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What Is the Value of Sociology at West Point

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What Is the Value of Sociology at West Point Teaching War from a Sociological Perspective : The West Point Exemplar By Morten G. Ender & Remi M. Hajjar In this paper we focus on war taught at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, from a sociological perspective. We first provide background on the development of studies of military and war in the field of sociology – with emphasis in the US, but also with global applicability. Second, we deliver an overview of West Point and its unique learning environment. In particular we discuss the structure, content, and process of specific sociology courses taught at West Point in the sociology programme, and how they have focused on war. Despite being in the longest war in the history of the United States beginning in 2001 to the present in Afghanistan, and also in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 and from 2017 to the time of this writing (and with sabre rattling and activity in other countries in the Middle East), the topic of war within the sociology programme is not taught at West Point as much as an outsider might expect. Nonetheless, war receives more attention in the sociology programme at West Point than in most colleges and universities around the world. American sociology has a rich history.1 But sociological interest in the military and war has waxed and waned over the past three centuries.2 Sociology has long played a major role in liberal education in the United States’ higher education system, and in the general education of students. Criteria for designing and maintaining strong sociology programmes are available from the American Sociological Association.3 Indeed, sociology offers both a major area of focus (depth) and contributes to the core general education requirements of college students (breadth). Early sociology focused on meliorism, empiricism, ethnography, locality, and reform representing turn-of-the-century American pragmatism in the founding traditions of American sociology. Early sociologists such as Spencer, Weber, Sorokin, Lasswell, among others, studied the role of the military in society.4 Within a couple of generations, sociology had developed subfields. Yet the establishment of the specialty of military sociology did not initially take hold until the 1970’s, despite a significant interest following World War II.5 At that time, military sociology emerged alongside the Vietnam War and became a source of knowledge about peace, war, and the military institution. A consequence is that the sociology of war and military sociology became inextricably linked. The views of the authors are their own and do not purport to reflect the position of the United States Military Academy, the Department of the Army, the US Department of Defense, or the United States Government. 1 For an application of these ideas to another region of the country, see Ender & Huang, 1999. 2 See Soeters, 2018. 3 McKinney, Howery, Strand, Kain & Berheide, 2004. 4 Spencer, 1883 ; Sorokin, 1937 ; Lasswell, 1941 ; Weber, 1947. 5 Caforio, 2003 ; Siebold, 2001. Published/ publié in Res Militaris (http://resmilitaris.net), vol.9, n°1, Winter-Spring/ Hiver-Printemps 2019 Res Militaris, vol.9, n°1, Winter-Spring/ Hiver-Printemps 2019 2 As Segal and Clever note, The sociology of war is a subfield of sociology that focuses primarily on the macro- level patterns of war making, including how societies engage in warfare, the meaning that war has in society, and the relationship between state structure and war making. The sociology of war is strongly related to, although in many ways distinct from, the subfield of military sociology that focuses on the organization and functioning of military forces with a particular focus on military personnel and civil military relations. What binds these lines of scholarship together is the basic premise that to understand war, it is necessary to understand those who fight it, and vice versa.6 Early World War II and post-war studies focused on war and provided significant insights including The American Soldier,7 “The Small Warship”,8 “Cohesion and Disintegration in the Wehrmacht in World War II”,9 and a July 1946 special issue of the American Journal of Sociology dedicated to “Human Behavior in Military Society”.10 Later classics would include The Soldier and the State (Huntington); The Power Elite (Mills), and The Professional Soldier (Janowitz).11 It took another major American war in Vietnam for sociologists to develop significant interest in war and the military following the publication of The American Enlisted Man (Moskos).12 In terms of classroom instruction, the tome A Sociology for Special Circumstances: Using the Vietnam War in the Classroom, an important collaborative work by Elise Boulding et al, became the nucleus for the now named Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section of the American Sociological Association,13 which led to greater institutionalization of military sociology and the study of war.14 Following the 1970’s, public and general sociological interest in military matters increased but ebbed and flowed in diverse directions including nuclear disarmament and protests, major military events such as peacekeeping missions, mass military casualties, military scandals, and military interventions in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Kosovo.15 6 Segal & Clever, 2013. 7 Stouffer et al., 1949. 8 Homans, 1946. 9 Shils & Janowitz, 1948. 10 Boëne, 2000. 11 Huntington, 1957 ; Janowitz, 1960 ; Mills, 1956. 12 Moskos, 1970. 13 See Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section, American Sociological Association at http://www.asanet.org/asa- communities/sections/peace-war-and-social-conflict. 14 Boulding et al., 1974. 15 During this time, a few articles are published in Teaching Sociology that focus on war. They include Intro- duction to Contemporary Social Problems courses : Nusbaumer, Kelley & DiIorio, 1989 ; Hannon & Marullo, 1988 ; courses and material about genocide and the Holocaust : Abowitz, 2002 ; Friedman, 1985 ; and on student action including war protestt : Cornelius, 1998 ; or specific wars such as Vietnam : Long, 1993; Starr, 1995. Res Militaris, vol.9, n°1, Winter-Spring/ Hiver-Printemps 2019 3 Despite research by and the production of the next generation of military sociologists at major institutions in the United States such as the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Maryland, and Texas A & M University, and military sociology’s growth around the world, the subfield remained rather insular.16 Indeed, war, peace, and the military had a relatively invisible presence in mainstream sociology prior to September 11, 2001.17 The research shows a marginalization of peace, war, and military topics in sociology textbooks; a lack of conceptual and reference continuity across textbooks, yet a prominence of photographs of peace, war, and the military themes. Military and war appeared relegated to the back pages of the politics chapter – war essentially being an extension of politics. Prior to 9/11, war from a sociological perspective in various forms began to be taught around the United States. Enough so that three editions of syllabi, course and curriculum guides, and instructional materials had been produced during the 1990’s and 2000’, until the American Sociological Association went to online materials. This ultimately dispersed such courses throughout the database clearing house known as TRAILS – Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology (http://trails.asanet.org/Pages/TDLContent.aspx).18 This advancement of technology has McDonaldized and essentially undermined horizontal cohesion of fellow teachers through hyper and over-centralization. In the first decade after 9/11, 2001, and the subsequent US and coalition forces’ invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq, indeed what Baudrillard has called “World War IV”,19 a slow and seemingly deliberate scholarly and curricular movement appeared across disciplines in a myriad universities.20 Yet little is published about how war and the military are taught in the post-9/11 era—certainly not is the same way sociology informed teaching about war after Vietnam. West Point and the Teaching and Learning Context The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York was established during Thomas Jefferson’s presidential administration in 1802. It was the first military academy of its kind in the United States. For the nineteenth century, West Point graduated men as both engineers with degrees in engineering, science, and mathematics and commissioned second lieutenants for the US Army. Other academies emerged in the United States during the early to mid-1800’s including the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy located in Norwich, Vermont (now Norwich University), the Citadel located in Charleston, South Carolina, the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) located in Lexington, Virginia, and the United 16 See Ender, 2016. 17 See Ahmad & Wilke, 1973 ; Kurtz, 1992 ; Ender & Gibson. 2005. 18 See MacDougall, Ender & Raisz (eds.), 1998 ; MacDougall & Ender (eds.), 2003 ; Ender, Woerhle & Kelty (eds.), 2007. 19 Baudrillard, 2002. According to that author, WWIV (War against Terrorism) is the latest in a series comprising WWI (War against Imperialism), WWII (War against Fascism) and WWIII (War against Communism). 20 See Burgos, 2008. Res Militaris, vol.9, n°1, Winter-Spring/ Hiver-Printemps 2019 4 States Naval Academy located at Annapolis, Maryland. The US Air Force Academy located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was established in 1955 following the creation of a separate US Air Force after WW II in 1947. Today, all US military academies continue to produce military officers but all have broadened their academic curriculums and modelled them more along civilian institutions of higher education21 offering Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degrees, while also providing direct professional focus and military training. All of the military academies are accredited by professional associations, such as the Middle States Commission of Higher Education, as degree-granting institutions.22 West Point offers 36 different majors at the undergraduate level including sociology.23 Recent major additions include Kinesiology and Defense and Strategic Studies (DSS).
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