The Military and the Use of Force: Corporate Interests and War

Abstract

Among the various correlates of the use of force and war waging, those related to the military establishment are critical, an issue generally somewhat neglected. Some of them are related to the logic of bureaucratic functioning, as for example, interservice rivalries or the composite effect of various local rationalities or perceptions. Others are linked to corporate interests and conditions which favor their expression, their satisfaction, and their frustration, or, on the contrary, which mitigate their effects on the advocacy of force by the military. This is the perspective proposed here, and one that is generally less often developed. The analysis did not pretend to be exhaustive at all. Simply, it intended to deal with the various theoretical and empirical contradictions inherent to the topic. It has no other claim than to suggest further reflection on an issue which, in any case, requires further empirical research.