| ID | 115265 |
| Title Proper | What is a skillful soldier? an epistemological foundation for understanding military skill acquisition in (Post) modernized armed forces |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Sookermany, Anders McD |
| Publication | 2012. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | How do we understand military skill/skills, what is it to be militarily skilled, and how do we acquire military skill/skills? Answering these three questions is essential to understanding the ongoing military transformation of developed Western countries. Universalism and contextualism (two competing ethical/epistemological positions) are used to sketch out a typological framework for explaining how different military paradigms/concepts treat "good" soldiering. Universalism is strongly connected with the traditional military paradigm of static invasion-based defense, while contextualism is connected to flexible expeditionary force-based defenses of the twenty-first century. Transformative changes over the past decade illustrate the value of the contextualist paradigm, suggesting that the universalist paradigm may no longer be useful for a twenty-first century expeditionary force. |
| `In' analytical Note | Armed Forces and Society Vol. 38, No.4; Oct 2012: p.582-603 |
| Journal Source | Armed Forces and Society Vol. 38, No.4; Oct 2012: p.582-603 |
| Key Words | Soldiering Skill ; Transformation ; Universalism ; Contextualism ; Skill Acquisition |