ABSTRACT
According to historical sociology, the military field was the first source of power to be nationalized in the late Middle Ages. Yet it has probably become the most transnational one today. Although some observers do not shy away from speaking of a “global military”, transnationalization is particularly visible on the European continent (Shaw 2000). Since organizational, social, and political resources acquired at the national level remain paramount, it is certainly too early to speak of a displacement of national military fields. Nonetheless, a specific kind of transnational capital is gradually being created around the figure of the “interoperable professional soldier”. By this expression, we mean a set of professional skills, often originating from the US but acquired in international contexts, which are increasingly valuable in national fields where they serve, in combination with control over international organizational resources, as a new form of military capital.
