ABSTRACT
for the purposes of this chapter, ‘armed forces and society’ refers to an important topic of sociological research concerned with the associations and complex connotations connected with the concepts of the armed forces (military) and society. 1 The ‘military’ referred to in this paper is an organization within society that legally manages and dispenses violence; ‘society’ describes the collective group formed via the interaction of people within a nation, and of which the military is a component. As the military is legally sanctioned to dispense violence, there is a fair degree of tension between the military and society's values.
