Soldiers' Status within Society

The recently published United Kingdom Armed Forces Covenant - Government Response states that a 'robust, well planned and high quality Service personnel research programme is fundamental to developing evidence-based policies that deliver the human component of military capability and meet the aspirations of Service personnel' (Ministry of Defence UK, 2011). Personnel constitute of a third of the UK Defence budget and half of the Canadian Defence budget. While governments have established cooperation programmes such as The Technical Cooperation Program between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, they lack similar cooperation programmes relating to personnel issues - the human dimension of national defence. The governments have a vested interest in the wellbeing of their soldiers and this project is designed to begin understanding how soldiers perceive their place within society, as a result of their military career. This project will provide not only a forum for academics studying military sociology, politics, international relations and psychology, but will also provide a voice for soldiers that may help the militaries, the governments and academics understand how soldiers perceive they are supported by society and potentially have an effect on how soldiers are treated in the future. These issues potentially have an impact on morale and retention, in that if a soldier does not feel valued they may feel an increased desire to leave the military.

The Project Coordinator received an ESRC PhD studentship to investigate how soldiers perceive their place within society in the United Kingdom, Canada and France, and whether military training or combat experience has an effect on these perceptions. There has been a recent rise in research projects investigating the welfare, morale, and status of soldiers within society, both in the academic sphere as well as the practitioner sphere; however a formal network has not yet been established to facilitate knowledge exchange on these issues. The current situation provides a timely opportunity to engage in exchanging the research findings of the Project Coordinator's PhD research as well as the work of other academics and practitioners in this field.

The project will provide a bridge between soldiers, the policy initiatives of the government, the initiatives of the Armed Forces Community Covenant Teams, the assistance provided by Service charities and research being conducted regarding civil-military relations. The project will also provide a forum for leading and upcoming researchers as well as the non-academic user communities to discuss recent issues in the field. Current events have generated an increased interest in the welfare of soldiers with numerous groups conducting research or engaging in initiatives to assist soldiers. This project will enable these different groups to come together and discuss their current research and initiatives.

The proposed activities would build a multidisciplinary and international network between academics, practitioners and officials regarding the issues surrounding the status of soldiers in Europe and North America. Understanding any disparities that may exist between nations with regards to a soldier's perceived status within society is valuable for morale issues, especially when soldiers must work in multinational coalitions and exercises or on peacekeeping missions with other nation's soldiers who may possess different feelings of societal value. Therefore, although the project will emphasis British soldiers, the project will be international in nature, including participants from Canada, France and the United States. The results of the project could have direct impact on issues relating to personnel retention, the ability of soldiers to work well with coalition soldiers, and the integration of Territorial Army or Reserve Force personnel with Regular Force personnel.

Who will benefit:
- Military personnel from the United Kingdom, Canada, France and the USA
- Military Charities and User Communities such as the Royal British Legion, Help for Heroes, Army Benevolent Fund and the Imperial War Museum
- Military spouses and families
- Policy makers working on the Armed Forces Covenant
- Academics from Political Studies, Sociology, Psychology, Human Geography, International Security Studies, Philosophy
- The public in general

How they will benefit:
The project conference and workshops will bring academics, military personnel, practitioners and policy makers together to discuss current research and trends, as well as identify gaps in the research being conducted and possible issues to address in the future. The conference and workshops will emphasise user community engagement and participant numbers will aim for an academic and user community ratio of 1:1.

The conference will provide a means to present current research from not only academia but also from service charities and policy groups to a broader audience and will also provide the opportunity for a number of graduate students to present their research on the area of soldiers within society. The papers presented at the conference will potentially form part of a special edition of the Armed Forces and Society Journal.

The workshop held in the UK will facilitate a discussion amongst policy makers, military personnel, Service charities and academics in order to share research findings, understand where support and research are lacking, and discuss possible future research and project collaboration across disciplines, user communities and nations.

The outreach activities are designed to engage communities who do not normally participate in typcial academic resources such as journal articles and conferences. The outreach programme will entail the Project Coordinator meeting with military personnel and their spouses during their coffee morning meetings to discuss what they feel is missing in the current civil-military initiatives being undertaken by the government. In addition, Mrs Travis will share with the user communities the recent findings of her research, as it has been found that these communities are not effectively accessing the available information regarding the government's policy changes to the civil-military relationship.

Mrs Travis will also visit the Royal Military College, Canada, to engage in knowledge exchange with military and academic personnel at the College through seminars and discussions regarding her findings as well as the findings from Canadian researchers in academia and the Canadian Forces, in order to strengthen the international network and discuss any disparities between the nations.

Other outreach activities will be to engage with the Community Covenant teams in the UK to help bridge the gap between the military and society. It has been shown that amongst civilians there is a lack of understanding of who soldiers are and what they do - the outreach activities in this section of the project will aim to help civilians better understand soldiers, making the research findings from Mrs Travis' PhD available to the general public in a format that is easy to understand. This component will work closely with the Royal British Legion, the Imperial War Museum and Help for Heroes to generate knowledge exchange to the general public. The Imperial War Museum has invited Mrs Travis to participate in a meeting with the Heads of Department at the museum to discuss how they may showcase contemporary conflict at the museum. Mrs Travis will also engage in a similar collaboration with the Canada War Museum. This will enable Mrs Travis to carry-on this collaboration further, which will extend the impact of her research findings to the general public and allow Mrs Travis access to both museums' research as well as research from the Royal British Legion.