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A military or military force generally refers to a permanent, professional and structured force of soldiers or guerrillas trained exclusively for the purpose of warfare. These military forces should be distinguished from a sanctioned militia or a levy, which are temporary forces, who are "called up" in wartime, composed of citizen soldiers with less training. A military can utilize conscription (the "draft") or be made up of volunteers. In some cases, the term "military" is used more loosely to refer to any armed force. The doctrine that asserts the primacy of a military within a society is called militarism.
Military history can be traced back to the prehistoric period when endemic fightings were common between rival tribes. Forces have changed from the sword and spear-wielding footsoldiers of antiquity to Middle Ages soldiers mounted on horseback, to Napoleonic-era soldiers armed with gunpowder muskets and cannons. Since World War I, military forces have used motorized vehicles and rapid-fire firearms.
Due to the growing number of military conflicts and the development of science during the last centuries, many new military strategies and tactics have been developed. As a consequence, military science has become a phenomenon striving to be a scientific system.
The term "military" is derived from Middle French term militaire, which is derived from the Latin word militaris, which means "of soldiers or war." The Latin word is derived from "miles" (genitive version is militis), which means "soldier." Perhaps the term ultimately came from Etruscan meaning "one who marches in a troop."[1] The term military is often used to mean an army.
As an adjective, "military" is a descriptive property of things related to soldiers and warfare. It also refers to such context dependent terms such as military reserves which may indicate an actual unit deployable on command or the general sense, of a nation-state's reserve troops available to or eligible for duty in its armed forces.
In formal British English, "military" as an adjective sometimes refers more particularly to matters relating to an army (land forces), as opposed to the naval and air force matters of the other two services. In modern British English, whilst the term is still used in an exclusive sense, it has become common for the adjective "military" to describe all branches of the armed forces.
In American English, "military" as an adjective is more widely used for regulations pertaining to and between military procurement, military transport, military justice, military strength, and military force.
Military history is often considered to be the history of all conflicts, not just the history of proper militaries. It differs somewhat from the history of war with military history focusing on the people and institutions of war-making while the history of war focuses on the evolution of war itself in the face of changing technology, governments, and geography.
Military history has a number of purposes. One main purpose is to learn from past accomplishments and mistakes so as to more effectively wage war in the future. Another is to create a sense of tradition which is used to create cohesive military forces. Still another may be to learn to prevent wars more effectively.
Main article: Military organization; See also: Military reserve Armed forces may be organized as standing forces (e.g. regular army), which describes a professional army that is engaged in no other profession than preparing for and engaging in warfare. In contrast, there is the citizen army. A citizen army (also known as a militia or reserve army) is only mobilized as needed. Its advantage lies in the fact that it is dramatically less expensive (in terms of wealth, manpower, and opportunity cost) for the organizing society to support. The disadvantage is that such a "citizen's army" is less well trained and organized.
A compromise between the two has a small cadre of professional NCOs (non-commissioned officers) and officers who act as a skeleton for a much larger force. When war comes, this skeleton is filled out with conscripts or reservists (former full-time soldiers who volunteer for a small stipend to occasionally train with the cadre to keep their military skills intact), who form the wartime unit. This balances the pros and cons of each basic organization, and allows the formation of huge armies (in terms of millions of combatants), necessary in modern large scale warfare.
Main article: Military science
Military science concerns itself with the study and of the diverse technical, psychological, and practical phenomena that encompass the events that make up warfare, especially armed combat. It strives to be an all-encompassing scientific system that if properly employed, will greatly enhance the practitioner's ability to prevail in an armed conflict with any adversary.
Main article: Militarism Militarist ideology is the doctrinal view of a society as being best served (or more efficient) when it is governed or guided by concepts embodied in the culture, doctrine, system, or people of the military.
Under the justification of potential application of force, militarism asserts that civilian populations are dependent upon — and thereby subservient to —the needs and goals of its military. Militarism is sometimes contrasted with the concepts of comprehensive national power and soft power and hard power.
See: List of militaries by country
Major books for understanding the role of the military, and the civilian leadership of the military.