Moskos’s Postmodern Military Model

Abstract

This first chapter provides a background on the theoretical framework employed in this research. The postmodern military model (PMMM), promulgated by Moskos, Williams, and Segal, posits that militaries faced with a shift from the threat perception of enemy invasion or nuclear attack to primarily nontraditional threats such as terrorism and ethnic violence undergo changes to their force structure, personnel requirements, and their relationship to the wider society. The model was originally developed as a means of examining the changes taking place in the US military by establishing a framework for military transformation, from the mass standing army dedicated to warfighting that was marked by a different ethos than the civilian society which it was charged with protecting, to a more multipurpose force marked by the professional soldier, more civilian interpenetration, and responding to a very different threat profile. Many militaries have undergone such a shift, primarily those of the western European and North American nations, as they and their associated societies transitioned into the postmodern era. The questions of interest in the current book are how Taiwan’s military scores according to this theoretical framework. Moskos is one of the world’s foremost military sociologists and his theories have been essential in our understanding of civil–military relations, and so it is important for planners and policymakers in Taiwan to take such scholarship into account as they see their society evolving toward postmodernism and attempt to push their military to follow.

Citation

Karalekas, D. (2018), "Moskos’s Postmodern Military Model", Civil-Military Relations in Taiwan, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 11-40. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-479-420181002