An Overview of Military Unionism in the Post-Cold War Era

Since the end of the Cold War, the armed forces of most developed democracies have been subjected to far-reaching reforms. Most can be directly related to the change in the nature of perceived threats, both nationally and internationally and the obligation of respective armed forces to respond to an ever-widening spectrum of tasks. In recent years many scholars have noted how the armed forces have adapted to the new security environment, which marked not only a change in mission focus, but also to organisational and force structures as they became obligated to function under increasingly stringent budgetary constraints (Moskos et al. 2000; Burk 1998; Dandeker and Weibull 1999; Manigart 2003: 329).