Introduction

Some time ago Anthony Giddens noted an ‘oddity’ within sociology. When conceptualising ways of thinking about the nation-state he suggested that, ‘it is very unlikely that he or she will discover any discussions of military institutions, or of the impact of military violence and war upon modern society’ (Giddens, 1985: 22). The peculiarity insinuated by this remark is that the absence of war, as a common sociological interest, both past and present, is counterintuitive since war and war violence have had impacts on the social world in significant and undeniable ways throughout history (Giddens, 1985). As we will go on to discuss in Chapter Two, other scholars have pointed out more recently that the study of society, politics and culture have often been marginal interests to those studying war and military institutions; likewise, war and war violence are suggested to have been scarcely paid any significant attention by sociologists (see, for example, Barkawi, 2006; Ware, 2009). Although prominent works within historical sociology have been influential in addressing war in relation to state practices (for example, see Tilly, 1975, and of course, Giddens, 1985, noted above), such contributions ‘have remained sporadic’ (Eulriet, 2010: 61). Put simply, although ‘war’ and war violence has raged consistently in one form or another on every continent following the ‘century of peace’ (1815–1914), and certainly during the subsequent 100 years since the cessation of the First World War in 1918 to the present day (we are indeed writing parts of this book during 2018), sociological interest and attention to the incitement, perpetration and consequences of ‘war’ has failed to match the historical prevalence, global reach or influential scale of this violent social phenomenon.

Instead, attention to war and military issues within sociology has been largely relegated to the ‘estranged’ interests of military sociology (Eulriet, 2010: 62). Indeed, as Martin Shaw (1984: 4) noted some time ago within War, State and Society, ‘Military sociology has been primarily concerned with institutional analysis, with the social organisation of armed forces and the way this influences their goals.’ Heinecken (2015) suggests that the redirection of these interests to study the military institution, and the neglect of a detailed study of war and its relationship to social and political change within sociology, is the Achilles heel of the discipline.