Military has two broad meanings. In its first sense, it refers to soldiers and soldiering. In its second sense, it refers to armed forces as a whole. Over the years, military units have come in all shapes and sizes. They have been as small as a handful of medieval peasants banded together for battle under their feudal lord or as large as the invasion force created in 1944 for D-Day. They can be as rigidly organized as the impis of Shaka Zulu or virtually autonomous like the Knights Templar during the Crusades. Some states - for instance, Sparta or more recently Prussia - have even placed military prowess at the heart of government.

The business of soldiering is as old as recorded history itself. Some of the most enduring images of the classical world portray the power and feats of antiquity's military leaders. The Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC was one of the defining points of pharoah Ramesses II's reign and is celebrated in bas relief on his monuments.^[1] A thousand years later, the first emperor of unified China, Qin Shi Huang, was so determined to impress the gods with his military might that he was buried with an army of terracotta soldiers. ^[2] The Romans were keen on military matters, leaving to posterity many treatises and writings as well as a large number of lavishly carved triumphal arches and columns celebrating their victories.

In our own era, world wars and countless other major conflicts have changed the political landscape beyond recognition. Empires have come and gone; states have grown and expired. Enormous social changes have been wrought and military power continues to dominate international politics. The role of the military today is as central to society as it ever was.

Etymology and some definitions

The first recorded use of military in English, spelled militarie, was in 1585.^[3] It comes from the Latin militaris (from Latin miles meaning "soldier", that is, someone skilled in arms, or engaged in military service or in warfare). ^{[4] [5]}

As an adjective, military originally applied only to soldiers and soldiering, but it soon broadened to apply to land forces, in general, and anything to do with their business.^[3] The names of both the Royal Military Academy (1741) and United States Military Academy (1802) reflect this. However, about this time, it started to be applied to armed forces as a whole^[3] and nowadays expressions like "military service", "military intelligence" and "military history" reflect this broader meaning.

As a noun, the military usually refers generally to a country's armed forces or sometimes, more specifically, to the senior officers running them. ^[4][5]

Military science

Main article: Military science

Military science is the study of warfare in all its aspects. By focusing on aspects of warfare - for instance, its technical, psychological, and practical components - it aims to improve the prospect of success in combat.

Organization

Main article: Military organization

See also:

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.

Intelligence

Main article: Military intelligence

Military intelligence can be defined as the process of gathering of information about the enemy threats, strengths and weaknesses. Intelligence activities are conducted at all levels from tactical to strategic, during peacetime and in war. The process of intelligence has four phases: collection, analysis, processing and dissemination. In the United Kingdom, these are known as Direction, Collection, Processing and Dissemination. The most elementary military intelligence is the collection of order-of-battle data which consists of information about the basic structure of a military and the amount of weaponry.^[6]

Strategy and tactics

Main articles: Military strategy and Military tactics

The line between strategy and tactics is easily blurred, and deciding which is which can sometimes be a matter of personal judgment. Very broadly, strategy is deciding what to attack; tactics is deciding how to attack it. In other words, strategy is the thought, and tacts is the deed. The conversion of stategy into tactics is sometimes called the operational art.

Military strategy concerns itself with the conduct of warfare, the movement and disposition of forces, and the deception of the enemy. The term comes from the Greek strategos, strategy was seen as the "art of the general". Military strategy is usually long term, and takes the broad view.

Military tactics concerns itself with the methods for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. The term is derived from the Greek Taktikē, (meaning literally "matters pertaining to arrangement" ^[3]). Military tactics are usually shorter-term, and are focused on the specific task in hand.

One of the oldest surviving military literary works is The Art of War by the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu.^[7] Written in the 6th century BC, the 13-chapter book has had a huge influence on Eastern and Western military planning, business tactics, and beyond.

Both the Classical Greeks and Romans wrote prolifically on military campaigning. Amongst the best known works are Julius Caesar's commentaries on the Gallic Wars and the Roman Civil war, written about 50 BC. Two major works on tactics come from the late Roman period: Taktike Theoria, by Aelianus Tacticus, and De Re Militari ("On military matters") by Vegetius. Taktike Theoria examined Greek battle methods, and was most influential in the Byzantine world and during the Golden Age of Islam. De Re Militari formed the basis of European military tactics until the late 17th century. Perhaps its most enduring maxim is "let he who desires peace prepare for war."

In his seminal book titled On War, the Prussian general and leading expert on modern military strategy Carl von Clausewitz defined military strategy as "the employment of battles to gain the end of war."^[8] According to Clausewitz, "strategy forms the plan of the War, and to this end it links together the series of acts which are to lead to the final decision, that, is to say, it makes the plans for the separate campaigns and regulates the combats to be fought in each."^[9] Hence, he placed political aims above military goals, ensuring civilian control of the military. Military strategy was one of a triumvirate of "arts" or "sciences" that governed the conduct of warfare: the others being military tactics, the execution of plans and manœuvering of forces in battle; and military logistics, the maintenance of an army.



Military tactics can take the form of ambushes, encirclements, frontal assaults, air assaults, hit-and-run (which is used mainly by guerilla rebels) and in some cases suicide attacks. Often, deception, in the form of military camouflage or misdirection using decoys, is used to confuse the enemy. A major military tactic that came to prominence in the 19th and early 20th century is trench warfare. This was mainly employed in World War I in the Gallipoli campaign and the Western Front. Trench warfare often turned to a stalemate, because in order to attack an enemy entrenchment soldiers had to run through an exposed "no man's land" under heavy fire from an entrenched enemy.

Logistics

Main article: Military logistics

Military logistics is the management and planning of the supply chain.

Military transport is part of logistics. It would pertain to equipment trans-shipped via a sister service, or an individual detached for a technical school operated by a sister service, or the travel orders and authorization of such an individual to proceed via a sister services vehicles, as well as the loan of vehicles (staff cars, Hum-Vees, military trucks) operating from the primary base command.

Technology and equipment

Main article: Military technology and equipment

When Stone Age man first took a sliver of flint to tip his spear, he was applying technology to improve his weaponry. Since then, the advance of mankind and the advance in weaponry has been irretrievably linked. Stone weapons gave way to bronze, and then bronze to iron. With each technological change has come an advantage: sharper weapons, harder weapons, more durable weapons.

The Greeks and Romans brought technology to the front with the invention and development of siege engines. Then came the age of chivalry, with knights - mounted on destriers and encased in ever-more sophisticated armour - dominating the field. In the meantime, in China, gunpowder had been invented and was increasingly being used in military applications. It was the arrival of cannon in Europe and advanced versions of the long bow and cross bow - which all had armour-piercing capability - that put an end to the dominance of the armoured knight. After the long bow (which required great skill and strength to use), came the musket (which could be used effectively by anyone after short training). In time, the successors to muskets and cannon, in the form of rifles and artillery would become core battlefield technology.

As the speed of technological advance accelerated in the civilan world, so warfare became more industralised. The newly-invented machine gun and repeating rifle brought awesome new fire power to the battlefield and in part explains the high casualty rates of the American Civil War. The next big breakthrough was the new highly-mobile, recoilless field gun, the French Soixante-Quinze in the late 1800s. During World War I, the need to break the deadlock of the trenches saw the rapid development of many new technologies, particularly in military aviation and tanks.



World War II however, perhaps marked the most frantic period of weapons development in the history of humanity. Massive numbers of new designs and concepts were fielded, and all existing technologies were improved between 1939 and 1945. It was during this time that the atomic bomb was created.

After World War II, with the onset of the Cold War, the constant technological development of new weapons was institutionalized, as participants engaged in a constant race to develop weapons and counter-weapons. This constant state of weapons development continues into the modern era, and remains a constant draw on the resources of most nations.

Ultimately, the most powerful of all invented weapons is the MIRV ICBM armed with nuclear warheads.

Not all military technology has proved practical in the long term. Two such inventions, the parachute hat and the gun helmet, failed to catch on. The gun helmet was fitted with a rifle but the recoil broke a man's neck during early trials.^[10] A more recent example is the gay bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.^[11]

Military history

Main article: Military history

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.

Military and society

The relationship between the military and the society it serves is a complicated and ever-evolving one. Much depends on the nature of the society itself and whether it sees the military as important (as for example in time of threat or war) or a burdensome expense (as typified by defence cuts in time of peace).

Doctrine, ideology and ethics

Main page : Militarism