Since the end of the cold war era, all armies around the world face the same problem. How should their armies look and be organized so they will be prepared for a new type of global warfare? But we do not even know what kind of dangers are out there. Before the 9/11 attack, all armies were prepared for conventional warfare. There would be a classic battle, one army against another. But now there are numerous types of dangers out there. From suicide bomb attacks, biological attacks, cyber-attacks, and others that we do not even know to exist. The military is taking more and more precautionary measures to make the world a safer place and by doing that military is worsening things with civilians. I will try to present some of the biggest problems in civilian-military relationships and how I think can be solved.
A civilian-Military relationship is at its lowest point and we are still sinking further away. Until the strategical concept of the army will not changes, we cannot hope for a better future. Civilians will not support the army until we do not have a strategic concept that is civilian-friendly and easier for civilians to understand what the army does.
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In beginning, the army should be politically neutral. So no president, congressman, or someone in politics cannot use the army for its personal political or economic goals.
Another problem is that civilians do not support the army or they are even afraid of the army because they do not understand what the army does and how it works.
And the last problem in Civilian – The military relationship is the superiority of the army over civilian people around the world.
In the past and even now, armies were and still are political tools to achieve political goals. In nowadays we have global journalism and vast social media where everyone can speak freely and report news around the globe in meters minutes. If some politician abuses the army for his own interest the news will be out in meters of hours. Civilians do not support that kind of power abuse and they do not care who the man behind the curtain is. They only see who did it. That is why Civilian – The military relationship is very low.
But it is not that simple. The army only follows orders. And who is commanding the army? In most of the world, the commander of the army is the president of the country. The president has the power to command the army to invade some other country because of his political or even worse his personal economical goals. That is a total abuse of power. Civilians do not like that and sooner or later the true story will come out. What can we do, so there will be no more power abuses?
We already have the civilian group who controls what the army does. But are they really military educated, do they understand the army's way of thinking and executing the orders? In most cases, they do not know what their job is and that is the problem. Yes, they should control the army, but they should also be the one who represents the army's decisions to the civilian world, so the civilian world would have a better understanding of what and why the army does.
Civilians in most cases fear the military because they never served in the army, they do not understand the way the military works and they do not have a lot of information about the military. Civilians think that armies are still killing innocent people around the world. They think soldiers are killing babies and raping women. They are 100% wrong. Why is that? The strategic concept of the army to address this issue is not well executed. The army should use strategic communication more efficiently. The army should be more prepared on how to communicate and how to deliver news to the civilian sphere. Strategic communication is one of the most important tools for the commander of the army. With strategic communication, the army should bring news to civilians every day, letting them know what the army does and how the army works. This could be done over TV news, social media, radio… And when civilians will understand what the military does. They will see that army is not just a raw force that destroys everything. They will start to see all the good things that the army does too, like helping civilians rebuild their homes after hurricane disasters.
But to achieve that goal army must first change from the inside. Usually, when a soldier dresses in uniform he feels more powerful and superior to civilians. And civilians can feel that negative behavior towards them. That takes the military even further low in Civilian – The military relationship. The army should still teach their soldiers to be great warriors, but the army should also teach soldiers to be very humble. Teach them there is a lot of poverty in the world and not everyone has a roof overhead and worm bed. Teaching soldiers that people overseas are not something less just because they are poor. Teaching them there are a lot of different people, different cultures, different religions, and different races. But in the end, we are still all humans and bloody under the skin. The army is teaching soldiers to be respectful to each other, but does the army teach soldiers to be respectful to civilians? The army should teach soldiers to help those people and to be respectful toward them and civilians will soon change their minds about the military very quickly. They will start supporting the military which is also supporting them.
To soften up the relationship between civilians and the military, the military should do the first step. The military should start changing its approach toward civilians by changing its strategic concept of how things are done. The military should be more like “military for people” and less “military of people”. The military should start planning long-term strategic communication on how to be more popular among civilians. And when civilians will start to understand the military, how it works, what is their job, what are they doing, and why, and then more people will join the army and more people will support the efforts of the army. An army that has civilians on its side supporting them is an undefeatable army in all aspects.
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