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The Citizen-Soldier Tradition in the United States

Has Its Demise Been Greatly Exaggerated?

University of Minnesota

Many contend that the citizen-soldier tradition in the United States is dead. They argue that the elimination of the draft in 1973, and the establishment of the all-volunteer force (AVF), severed the link between military service and citizenship. The author maintains that this conventional wisdom is wrong. Critics of the AVF have idealized the pre-AVF U.S. military; they have failed to recognize that the AVF was more a product of change in U.S. citizenship ideals than a cause of them; and they have asserted a homology between institutional design (military recruitment system) and a cultural phenomenon (the citizen-soldier tradition) that has little historical purchase. This article reconceptualizes the citizen-soldier tradition as a set of rhetorical conventions, and it demonstrates that these tropes continue to shape political debate in the United States. From this perspective, the AVF did not condemn the citizen-soldier to death: it gave him or her a new lease on life.

Key Words: citizen-soldier • all-volunteer force • citizenship • military service

This version was published on October 1, 2009

Armed Forces & Society, Vol. 36, No. 1, 153-174 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X09337370


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