Beyond the Conventional Civil–Military “Gap”: Cleavages and Convergences in Israel

• Date: 01 January 2022
• Published date: 01 January 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X20903072
• Subject Matter: Articles

2022, Vol. 48(1) 164 –184

Beyond the Conventional

Civil–Military “Gap”:

Cleavages and

Convergences in Israel

Amichai Cohen

1

and Stuart Alan Cohen

2

Abstract

This article modifies the framework for the analysis of civil–military “gaps” proposed

in Armed Forces & Society (Vol. 38, 2012) by Rahbek-Clemmensen, Archer, Barr,

Belkin, Guerro, Hall, and Swain, who depicted a continuum of four binary fissures

(“gap dimensions”) dividing two hypothetically homogeneous communities: civilians

versus military personnel. Extrapolating from Israel’s experience, this article instead

visualizes a more dynamic and fissured landscape, inhabited by several hetero-

geneous clusters of population groups, each comprising impromptu coalitions drawn

from both the armed forces and civilian society. That environment, we argue,

although certainly influenced by the traditional penetrability of Israel’s civil–military

boundaries, more directly reflects current technological and cultural processes,

which are transforming encounters between civilians and military personnel in

other countries too. We therefore suggest replacing the predominantly dichot-

omous taxonomies that generally characterize studies of civil–military relations

in contemporary democratic societies with the fractured format observed in the

Israeli case.

Keywords

civil military relations, methodology, military culture, Israel

1

Faculty of Law, Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel; Israel Democracy Institute, Jerusalem, Israel

2

Department of Political Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

Corresponding Author:

Stuart Alan Cohen, Department of Political Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel.

Email: stuartcoh@gmail.com

Armed Forces & Society

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X20903072

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Article

Cohen and Cohen 165

Recent research has considerably advanced understanding of the so-called gap

between societies and armed forces in many liberal democracies. Progress owes

much to a conceptual innovation proposed in 2012 by Rahbek-Clemmensen et al.

Rather than simply citing instances of civil–military estrangement, they advised that

students should be “more explicit about their conceptualization” and specify the

areas of public life, in which civilian and military sectors are drifting apart (Rahbek-

Clemmensen et al., 2012, p. 670). Principally on the basis of prior literature relating

to the United States, they identified four such “gap dimensions,” each of which poses

an individual query.

(1) Cultural: Do civilians and soldiers adhere to similar values and follow similar

lifestyles? (2) Demographic: Does the composition of the military accurately mirror

the overall complexion of the civilian population in terms of ethnicity, class, gender,

etc? (3) Policy preferences: When contemplating possible courses of national action,

do military and civilian elites seek similar objectives? and (4) Institutional: Are

relationships between military and civilian bodies generally harmonious or

conflictual?

This article suggests modifying that taxonomy. Referencing Israel, a country in

which societal–military relationships have for some time been undergoing multiple

shifts (S. Cohen, 2008), we propose the following adjustments:

Renaming the “institutional” dimension of enquiry “institutional–

occupational,” an enlargement designed to incorporate the changes wrought

in the professional pursuits of the increasing numbers of soldiers and civilians

who now rely on similar skills and tools when performing their respective

tasks.

Rearranging the order in which the individual dimensions are analyzed in a

sequence that reflects the chronological order of their appearance. The

impression conveyed by Rahbek-Clemmensen et al. is that all four dimen-

sions appear simultaneously. By contrast, we suggest sensitizing the frame-

work to historical processes, principally by adopting a sequential approach

that reflects how each successive dimension of the civil–military relationship

overlays its predecessor as time goes by. (That said, a cautionary note is in

order. Only rarely does the evidence indicate that the advent of one “gap”

directly instigates the arrival of another. In Israel, certainly, the order and

timing of the sequence usually depend on exogenous circumstances. Further

research is required in order to ascertain whether such is also the case

elsewhere.)

Most significantly of all, we recommend abandoning the rigidly dichotomous

framework adopted by Rahbek-Clemmensen et al., who depict a continuum

of binary fissures dividing two distinct and hypothetically h omogeneous

communities: civilians on one side and men and women in uniform on the

other (Table 1). By contrast, extrapolating from Israel’s experience, we argue

that within each of the “gap dimensions,” a dual dynamic operates. In some

2Armed Forces & Society XX(X)