The Broken Rifle

The changing face of the military was the theme of the War Resisters' International seminar held in Germany in August, which brought together about 40 participants.

"New NATO" poses quite some challenges for the power balance in the world and goes beyond defending security. NATO has already moved east and therefore closer to Russia, which lost its former allies.

The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina led to NATO's first "peace-keeping" intervention and at the same time brought a shift from UN blue helmets to NATO military.

The ways of recruitment to the military vary greatly from country to country (see Refusing to Bear Arms). Mass armies based on some sort of conscription and professional armies based on "voluntary" service are the main two types. Accordingly, recruitment needs different strategies and different means of legitimisation. A wide range of people and skills is needed for the military, from highly educated officers to foot soldiers with basic education.

In this workshop human rights record of the military towards its own, and the fate awaiting both conscripts and "volunteers" within an unaccountable and largely unscrutinised "state within a state", was examined. In particular how Britain and "New NATO" is evangelising its brand of professionalisation based on human rights violations, and on coercing the most vulnerable members of society (poor, marginalised) under the guise of "social integration", was looked at.

Antimilitarist strategies focusing on conscientious objection differ widely from individualist approaches concerned with the individual right of the human being to refuse military service to collective actions of civil disobedience against conscription. What are the results of this different strategies in various circumstances? Are they contradicting each other or can they be combined?

While public interest in Europe and Northern America focuses on the Balkans, many changes in the face of the military can be seen in Africa too. While the war in Congo involving participation by many African countries demonstrates the example of military intervention only by African armies, Nigeria and other countries serve as example of a military which presents itself as promoting democracy after years of military dictatorship and the only effective force against corruption.

The workshop looked firstly at the historical development of militarisation in Africa.

While it is common antimilitarist thinking that the male image of the warrior is to be condemned, there is little analysis of new masculinities within the military, and even less thinking in strategic terms. What does a criticism of masculinities mean in antimilitarist work? The same can be said for recruitment strategies focusing on the military as an institution of social integration: what is the antimilitarist answer to gay and lesbian rights, equal opportunity programmes for women and people of colour or the military as the only job opportunity for working class people?

Some regard International law as a tool to abolish war or - at least - to limit the risk of war.

Others see International Law just as a legitimisation of so-called "just wars", wars legitimised by the UN Charter. Besides these general positions, what role can International Law play in the peace movement's struggle against war? What difference did the International War Crimes Tribunal on former-Yugoslavia make? While it condemns war crimes, does it at the same time justify the military, as the military is the only force capable of arresting war criminals?

What are the values to legitimise the military? In Germany through the process of nation building military service was made to be valued as "duty", linked with the right of citizenship. "Nation", (bourgeois) masculinity and citizenship were closely connected. After World War II "democracy" was the main value, linked with the need for military defence. Since the end of the 80s again a change can be identified, linking military with the "increased international weight of Germany" and the need to defend human rights everywhere.