Sociology of the Military

Abstract

Military sociology, or more precisely, the sociology of military organizations, studies social facts about military institutions, their functional and structural components, and their relations with the societies that constitute their environments. Three periods can be roughly distinguished in the historical development of military sociology: the origins of the discipline, the Cold War period, and the current one. Like other subfields of sociology, the themes discussed in military sociology reflect the evolution of society at large. This particular branch of sociology bridges individual behaviors with broader social structures, in this case, military organizations.