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European Research Group on Military and Society

10th ERGOMAS Conference in Stockholm, 2009 Swedish National Defence College, Stockholm June 22-26, 2009

A Global Focus on Military and Society

June 22-26, 2009, the Swedish National Defence College will be hosting the next conference of the European Research Group on Military and Society (ERGOMAS). ERGOMAS is an international scientific association, based originally in Europe but now open to all scholars from around the world, devoted to collaborative research on military and society.

ERGOMAS is a public, non-profit, politically and ideologically independent professional organization of scientists. Its purposes are pursued through the activity of Working Groups (see below) and the Biennial conference. The core disciplines of ERGOMAS are sociology and political science but, over time, it has become more and more multidisciplinary, and now has members drawn from many other disciplines: for example psychology, anthropology, education, history, to mention some of them.

ERGOMAS - not just another conference

The biennial conference functions as an occasion when all working groups meet, where new members can join and provides a unique opportunity for learning and networking within research on Military and Society. ERGOMAS distinctive quality lies in the research activities of its working groups, which meet (virtually or face-to-face) on occasions outside the formal meetings of the Association as a whole. A working group need not follow the same pattern: it could range from sharing of knowledge and methods, to the development of theory and of a common framework and methods to conduct an international project.

ERGOMAS is not, therefore, just a conference based on panels for the delivery of papers. Rather, it is a meeting designed for the delivery of results and ideas of working groups that have been meeting and working beforehand. Working Groups can change their directions of work and can be joined by new working groups, while others may end their work and be dissolved if they decide they have no more to say on a topic. ERGOMAS rests therefore on the dynamism and research collaboration of its constituent working groups.

The present working groups and their coordinators are:

• "Morale, Cohesion and Leadership" - gerry.larsson@fhs.se
• "Democratic Control of the Armed Forces" - Hans Born
• "Public Opinion, Mass Media and the Military" - Marjan Malesic
• "Women in the Military" - Marina Nuciari
• "Warriors in Peacekeeping" - Ljubiça Jelusic
• "Military Families" - René Moelker
• The Military Profession" - Giuseppe Caforio

Proposed New Working Groups

• "Recruitment and Retention" - Tibor Szvircsev Tresch
• "The Blurring of Military and Police Roles" - Prof. Dr. Marleen Easton
• "Violence and the Military" - Dr. Karl Yden

Organisation

The conference will take place at the Swedish National Defence College (Försvarshögskolan, FHS). Photographs showing the building and some of the facilities can be seen here. The conference is an opportunity to listen to and join some of the present working groups but also to put forward new ideas and directions.

Conference Themes 2009

The programme for the conference will be based on a combination of keynote talks, and presentations by the working groups. Proposals for new working groups and research themes are also welcome and some room will be made for the presentation of these. The conference themes will encompass the whole range from everyday conditions in international operations to critical events for civil and military personnel. Central themes during the conference are:

• 21st century military operations, focusing on issues arising from multinational links, jointness, inter-agency relationships and questions of linking military and reconstruction/nation building missions.
• The effects of operations on deployed personnel (not just military but civilians, contractors etc) as well as families, and wider publics; and impact of families and publics and deployed experiences on operations: so there are two-way relationships to be investigated here.
• Privatization of security and the use of private security companies in delivering support for military missions: legal, regulatory, civil-military and defence economics issues, including the question of how far commercialization and outsourcing of its core functions can go without undermining military effectiveness.
• Military cultures - challenges of social change and changing nature of operations - continuity and change.

For further information you are also welcome to contact Alise Weibull, President;Tibor Szvircsev Tresch, Secretary; Bernard Boëne, Treasurer

More detailed information on ERGOMAS´ working groups and other topics covered by the conference will gradually be put at our website.

War in the 21st Century: Sociological Perspectives on Iraq and Afghanistan

Professor Morten Ender and Professor Steve Carlton-Ford seek papers addressing the sociology and social psychology of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The papers will be candidates for inclusion in an edited volume tentatively titled War in the 21st Century: Sociological Perspectives on Iraq and Afghanistan.

As well as the additional papers we are soliciting, the book will contain eleven papers on the Iraq War originally published in two issues (November 2006 & February 2007) of Sociological Focus. These previously published papers addressed the Iraq War both from perspectives external to Iraq, as well as from inside Iraq during the early years of the war.

We seek papers that treat the same or similar issues concerning the war in Afghanistan. We also seek papers that address similar issues concerning the war in Iraq but from different sociological or social psychological points of view. These topics include but are not limited to:

• Media and popular press impact on the buildup to and length of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Bases of support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Bases of opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Attitudes toward the wars in Iraq and/or Afghanistan within countries supplying troops
• Impact of either of these wars on military families
• Effects of social inequalities on recruitment and deployment of troops
• The impact of either war on civilians in their respective countries
• Attitudes toward the wars in Iraq and/or Afghanistan inside those countries
• The role of contractors and other non-military personnel in these wars
• Regional and global impact of either/or both of these wars
• Leadership issues and the wars in Afghanistan and/or Iraq
• The role of social scientists in these war zones
• Representations of the wars in Iraq and/or Afghanistan in popular culture
• Effects of social inequalities on casualties or post-service reintegration of troops
• Social-psychological impact of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan on constituent groups

The deadline for submitting letters of intent is: November 15, 2008.

Please send a 2-3 page letter of intent providing an abstract of your proposed paper to:

Professor Steve Carlton-Ford
Department of Sociology
1018 Crosley Tower, ML 210378
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH, U.S.A. 45221-0378

Leadership for Military and other Dangerous Environments

Special Issue of Military Psychology

There is insufficient empirical and theoretical work addressing leadership in military and other dangerous environments. Therefore, the purpose of this special issue is to encourage researchers to advance the science of leadership in these unique contexts. We define dangerous environments as those in which leaders or their followers are personally faced with highly dynamic and unpredictable situations where the outcomes of leadership processes may potentially result in death or severe physical or psychological injury to unit members. Such situations may be faced in war and operations other than war (e.g. peacekeeping or humanitarian assistance operations), or even in intense training. As we suggest that unique leadership factors may operate when unit members are personally exposed to danger, our definition of dangerous environments distinguishes itself from other extreme contexts where the danger is instead to people outside the unit or group; such as emergency operating room teams, or emergency response teams that arrive on the scene after danger has subsided.

The editors pose the general questions, 1) in what ways are leadership processes distinguishable from non dangerous environments? And, 2) how can we best develop leaders and leadership to operate and be effective in dangerous contexts? We define leadership as a multilevel system where leaders, followers, groups, and the context they operate within interact to create (or deter) leadership – a process of positive influence. Therefore submissions can address these two broad questions through numerous more specific focuses such as: leader selection, training, education and development processes; followership; organizational/unit culture and climate; individual differences and attributes; motivational and influence processes; sense-making and meaning-making; leader, follower, group, and social network relationships; cognition (e.g. decision-making or intuition); affect and emotions; and many other areas.

We encourage a multidisciplinary approach and invite submissions from leadership, psychology, sociology, management, organizational behavior and other disciplines. We also invite the application of research from non-military domains such as fire fighting, law enforcement, intelligence services, or other domains where lessons can generalize across dangerous contexts and be applied specifically to military leadership and its development. Papers should make a clear contribution toward advancing the understanding of leadership processes, leader development, or leadership development specifically for extreme and dangerous contexts. We encourage authors to consult or collaborate with practitioners who operate in military or under other dangerous conditions to ensure papers have ecological validity and practical implications/applications.

Call for Papers:

Submissions should be received by 15 December 2008. An electronic copy of the submission should be sent to Donald Campbell. Questions about this special issue, expectations, requirements, and the appropriateness of a topic can be answered by any of the editors: Donald Campbell, Sean Hannah, or Michael Matthews.

Manuscripts should be prepared in MS Word in accordance with APA format and be no longer than 40 pages (including references, tables and figures).

Anthropology in a National Security Context: An Ethics Casebook

A project of the American Anthropological Association's Ad Hoc Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the US Security an Intelligence Communities (CEAUSSIC)

CEAUSSIC is asking our colleagues in anthropology and related disciplines for summaries of illustrative cases that explore intersections among the ethical, methodological, and theoretical aspects of work in, around, and for the national security state, including public and private institutions, in and outside academia. We seek narrative cases from all of anthropology's fields, including archaeology, biological/physical anthropology, ethnology, and linguistic anthropology; from emerging and established areas of practice and research within these fields.

The casebook submission process will occur in two phases: submission of a short summary abstract for CEAUSSIC review, due by December 31, 2008; followed by submission of a longer case narrative for selected cases, due by May 15, 2009.

1. The potential for exploring complex and emerging intersections among methodology, practice, ethics, and theory in anthropology, across all fields and forms of practice;
2. The case's relevance to present-day issues in anthropology's intersection with national security problems, across all four fields of the discipline and all forms of practice;
3. The potential for provoking educational and productive debate and discussion among anthropologists;
4. The potential for provoking debate about social science research ethics in a wider community beyond anthropology, including other disciplines and institutions;
5. The quality of the narrative, as demonstrated in a well-written abstract.

Case abstracts should briefly describe the context, the individuals and institutions involved, type of activity, the time period during which the situation is occurring or took place, and the ethical problems, themes, and issues that the case raises. Rather than offering opinions, solutions, or analysis, we would like a descriptive narrative that richly evokes the context and complexities of a moment of engagement in which moral, political, methodological, and/or ethical issues become salient.

We strongly encourage our colleagues to submit cases referring to real-life situations encountered in the course of work, but we are willing to consider realistic hypothetical cases that raise provocative questions about ethics, politics, morality, theory and methods, and that have practical implications for anthropologists engaged in all forms of practice, across all fields of the discipline. Cases do not have to originate in national security problems, but should have some relevance to current debates about anthropological ethics and practice vis-à-vis public and private institutions of power, including national security institutions. Cases that bring an international perspective to these problems are encouraged, particularly from anthropologists outside the United States. Cases that originate outside anthropology are welcome as well, as long as they provoke issues that are relevant to current anthropological discussions and debates.

Each preliminary submission should include the case title, the author's name and contact information, and a 200-250 word abstract that summarizes the key points of the case, and explicitly states how the case pertains to questions of anthropological ethics. CEAUSSIC will contact authors whose case abstracts meet the initial criteria, and ask them to provide a longer submission for panel discussion and eventual publication in the casebook. If your abstract is chosen for further consideration, we will ask you to submit a more elaborated case narrative of between 1500 and 3000 words in length.

Important Dates:

• Case abstracts final submission due to CEAUSSIC by 31 December 2008.
• We will review all submissions, select the discussion cases, and notify authors of the status of their case submission by 15 February 2009.
• The full case review will take place during May 2009.
• Once the review is complete, we will select and post a subset of these cases on the CEAUSSIC website. In addition, CEAUSSIC will maintain updates on its AAA webpage as the project progresses.
• We expect to have a final manuscript for publication submission by December 2009.

Questions and concerns may be directed to the Ad Hoc Commission's Chair, Dr. Rob Albro, or call 202-885-1546.