Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper theorizes the volunteer labor that wives of United States Army soldiers contribute to the well-being of the "Total Army Family.” These volunteers work a “shift” for their husbands’ employer, thereby enacting a two-for-one career pattern that the Army denies in theory but relies on in practice. The argument is based on and tested by the empirical findings that have come from participant-observation fieldwork and in-depth interviews conducted among wives of active-duty Army soldiers in 2006-2007. The interviews focus on the involvement of Army wives (labeled “dependents”) in Family Readiness Groups (FRGs), which are officially sanctioned, mandatory support groups led by and offered to family members--most often wives. The Army requires an operational FRG for each company of soldiers; to fulfill this requirement, the Army needs family members to lead and participate in FRGs, maintaining calling chains, providing a sense of community and connection, raising money for unfunded needs, and dispensing official information, among other duties. Therefore the Army depends on independent people (not contracted employees) to provide labor for FRGs, revealing its assumption that spouses will work for free to provide each other support on behalf of the institution in a two-for-one career pattern.

FRGs provide an Army-wide yet locally specific space where the vexed relationship of spouses to the institution of the Army can be observed. The paper will apply feminist arguments to understand the gender stereotypes that underlie the Army’s reliance on a two-for-one career pattern and its use of the phrase “Total Army Family,” but also the rewards that spouses can reap from volunteering in FRGs. For instance, FRGs offer a legitimating venue in which to conduct homefront operations, turning emotional work that spouses do in the private sphere to accommodate the demands of Army life into recognizable volunteer work in the public sphere.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Throughout the past several decades, women in Latin America joined guerrilla armies in great numbers. This powerful and unprecedented mobilization has been explained through structural changes in women’s gender roles and the emergence of new political and religious organizations that mobilized women. However, of the many women experiencing these structural changes, and of the many women embedded in these new mobilizing networks, only a portion actually made the move into guerrilla camps. The question of what specifically distinguishes participants from non-participants is left unanswered, in part because the data necessary for making the distinction has not previously been collected, and in part because current models of micromobilization do not adequately capture the complexity of micromobilization decisions, especially in a situation of societal upheaval. This project combines better data with an expanded theoretical model to examine the various processes that led women to the guerrilla camps in El Salvador. The results of the analysis not only provide the first micro-level explanation of women’s mobilization into guerilla armies, but also demonstrate new ways of thinking about and modeling individual-level variation in all types of movement mobilization. Specifically, I argue that the interaction of identity, biography, and resources can produce very different routes to participation among individuals embedded in similar networks.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will detail a new course developed collaboratively by the Army, NGOs, inter-agency actors, and universities and taught at the United States Military Academy for the first time in the spring of 2005. An innovative learning model, the course utilizes inter-disciplinary subject matter experts; panels of NGOs, IGOs, media, contractors, etc.; a veteran mentor program; and numerous hands-on practical exercises to teach future Army officers the critical skills and knowledge required to conduct peace-building tasks when called upon by the nation's leadership. Throughout the semester, students learned about political and economic reconstruction, conflict resolution, expectation management, moral and legal considerations, cultural awareness, and more. The course culminated with a 2-day exercise in Jersey City, in which fatigue-clad cadets were assigned to interact with the local Hindu, Muslim, and Coptic communities to learn about their community structures and issues, and then were required to brief community leaders on suggestions for building bridges and inspiring growth in the area. Cadets spent the night in a mosque and visited a Coptic church and a Hindu temple. The pilot exercise achieved real and incredible results for the students, outside participants (comprising 30+ visitors from across the Department of Defense, other government agencies, NGOs, and more), and the local community. This course was packaged for the Army on DVD for wider dissemination, and it is hoped that the Army will pick it up as standard officer education. One local college in New Jersey is now interested in pursuing similar projects with their students in this community, and West Point plans to significantly expand its interaction with this community next year for various courses based on this model. I will present this innovative learning model as a way to bring theory to life for students, while affecting real and positive spin-offs for all involved.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Holding the military to account is more contested than ever before and this paper explores the tensions in the relationship between the British armed forces, government and society. It argues that at the same time as the British government is asking more of its armed forces and more frequently placing them in harms way, it is providing the military with less legal protection in the conduct of these tasks. In addition and more generally it is eroding the governing autonomy of the military as a professional group capable of self-regulating its norms, culture and practice. This paper goes onto examine the consequences of this for civil-military relations in the UK.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The development of senior officers? understanding of civil-military relations principles is dependent on the attention that professional military education (PME) institutions devote to this aspect of professional development. The recent ?revolt of the generals? indicates an uneven application of principles taught in the various opportunities for PME that officers have throughout their careers. The ?revolt? may, even more disturbingly, indicate a vacuum in the development of officers in this critical area of professional behavior. This paper will examine the scope and depth of officers? education in civil-military relations at the Army?s senior PME institution, the US Army War College. The author will consider as well the foundation received at earlier junctures of PME for US army officers. The author seeks to discover if common principles are taught and reinforced throughout an officer?s cycle of professional development. Do the various US Army PME institutions coordinate their instruction in this area? What gaps still exist in officers? professional development? What can be done to shore up civil-military relations education within and between institutions?