The rhetoric of civil-military relations in contemporary armed forces museums

Clarke, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8509-3194 2023. The rhetoric of civil-military relations in contemporary armed forces museums. Journal of War and Culture Studies 16 (1) , pp. 80-99. 10.1080/17526272.2021.1878321

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Abstract

This article undertakes a rhetorical analysis of two European armed forces museums (the National Army Museum in London and the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden) in order to show how such institutions provide a space for the negotiation of civil-military relations in ‘post-military’ societies. It argues that both museums construct a world of military professionalism that shields the soldier from potential criticism in the context of contemporary armed conflicts, while encouraging the civilian visitor as democratic citizen to accept their responsibility for the deployment of the armed forces as a matter of policy. The article nevertheless highlights differences in the depiction soldiers and of warfare in general in both museums, which in turn point to differences in the discourse of war in the UK and Germany.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Modern Languages
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D901 Europe (General) D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain D History General and Old World > DD Germany P Language and Literature > PD Germanic languages
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
ISSN:	1752-6272
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 January 2021
Date of Acceptance:	14 January 2021
Last Modified:	29 Nov 2024 23:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/137683

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