Institutional evolution.

As human civilisation is evolving, the institutions that were once very relevant and inevitable have been becoming archaic and irrelevant and alarmingly becoming deleterious if remain enacted and rigid. Standing mass armies is one such institution, which is losing the relevance that it once earned through the conscription of human resources and extraction of natural resources. With the emergence of democracy coupled with the dilution of borders by globalisation, armies have lost their significance. The yardstick to measure the strength of any nation was its military's might which has now been replaced with other well-established indicators.

To shed more light on how and why the role of armies has dwindled, we have to dive into the modern historical account of the events and reasons that once made the army inevitable and much desirable. The raison d'etat for establishing the armies and galvanising their influence was to acquire large swaths of land and the quantifiable amount of people to propel the engine of their state machine. Resultantly, the expanded territories were in dire need to be regulated and protected, which could not be done without strengthening armies.

As per the report of Freedom House, there were scant sixty-nine electoral democracies in 1990; today there are more than one hundred and fifteen electrical democracies, which are more than sixty percent. In recently emerged democracies, resultantly, the transition from centrally planned economies to economic liberalisation spawned the era of entrepreneurship and innovation. Furthermore, the well-established democratic peace theory hits the last nail in the coffin of the aspirations to reinvigorate military might as a means of the sole indicator of state power. The increasing number of democracies are less likely to wage a war with another democratic country, which as a result declines the chances of war.

Ostensibly, after taking into account the recent shift in the reason of having large standing armies, it is now necessary to discuss the nature of the future warfare which poses the threats, but here too while dealing with them makes everyone wary of the institution of armies and militaries which are too rigid to abreast with the current dynamic nature of warfare, therefore, they have to bear the brunt of their rigidity...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT