ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of how sociological theories, insights and findings in one way or another have implications for the military today. There are similarities and differences in topics, overlapping and contradicting perspectives, as well as comparable and distinct emphases. Military sociology mostly studies civil–military relations, political–military relations including the mass media, as well as military management and human resources issues. Among those latter of study are leadership, recruitment and retention of personnel, the impact of training and education, the role of deployment conditions, the experience of stress and the well-being of military families. The diffusion of military ideas, ideologies and practices needs further scrutiny. This starts with the notion that there is no such thing as an objective truth in military decision making or conduct. From the sociology of organizations we know that organizations within one sector tend to become alike, even across national borders or continents.
