Building Democratic Resilience in Armed Forces and Societies

This panel focuses on developments in armed forces and societies to improve democratic resilience. Panelists explore both efforts to prepare citizens to take a more active role in their national defense and the importance of democracy-centric military education to ensure that democratic norms are imbued in military institutions. Papers explore national efforts to build societal resilience and defense cultures as part of "Total Defense" strategies. Cases studied include the Baltic States, Belgium, Poland, and the United States. The theory and practice of imbuing democratic military professionalism within pre-commissioning and graduate level military education programs in the United States and Brazil is also explored. Several papers explore the evolution of a peer-led student program, the Academy Oath Project (AOP), created in the wake of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. AOP provides experiential learning opportunities aimed at fostering greater understanding of and commitment to the Oath of Office that all military officers take at the point of their commissioning. In addition, the panel will contrast these undergraduate efforts with the democratic civil-military relations educational programs in the intermediate and senior level courses at the U.S. Naval War College where mid-level and senior level officers receive master’s degrees and Joint Professional Military Education certification in defense and strategic studies. Another paper focusses on military role conceptions of their relationship with civilian decisionmakers with an emphasis on the Brazil case. Civilian control is established as a set of specific set of behaviours—such as non-involvement in partisan politics, budget autonomy, and others—that are tied to a specific role conception adopted throughout a military. The paper analyzes the extent to which that role conception is internalized by members of the military and reinforced through the military educational system.