Do Armies Just Fight? Turkish, US and Russian Armies in the Context of New Missions

Abstract

The transformation, which has always existed for the armies throughout history, evolved in a different direction with the end of the Cold War, and it was believed that the conventional army approach could not adequately respond to the changing security threats for states. This situation has revealed the necessity of restructuring armies under the new threats and mission types that emerged. In this study, the new missions for the armed forces, which emerged as a result of the change in the military with the end of the Cold War and which are the subject of the discipline of military sociology, are discussed through the analysis of the US, Russia, and Türkiye. While the states in the two opposite blocks of the Cold War period put military institutionalization and practices on the top of their agenda in line with the leading powers of the blocks, the main problem of the study is how this process will be realized in the new period after the Cold War. As per the way the problem is posed, the three countries selected are considered appropriate for this analysis. Contrary to the traditional view, this study argues that the sole function of armies is now not only to battle but that they have gained different functions in the new era and that the countries have created new missions and institutional structures quite similar to each other, in contrast to the military understandings that diverged in line with the rigid blocs of the past. In the Turkish literature, there are almost no studies on the new missions that have emerged as a direct result of the transformation of the armies. Therefore, it is hoped that this study will make original contributions to the military sociology literature.

Keywords

• military change
• new missions
• professional army
• turkish armed forces
• us armed forces
• russian armed forces