Since the end of World War II, security and defense have played a major role in European politics. With the European Union's increasing role on the global stage and with today's war on terrorism, security and defense issues have dramatically gained weight and importance in international politics. This compelling volume provides an interdisciplinary look at the development and current status of the European security system as well as selected key issues on today's security agenda. As such, it provides an excellent reference resource for those wishing to make sense of the complexities of defense and security issues in the European Union at a time of global change.

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the various social science approaches to explaining and interpreting war, peace and the military. Its central aim is to trace and reconstruct those basic assumptions constructed and 'thought processes' undertaken by modern social sciences in their research and conceptualization of military violence and the use of force. In addition to such reconstruction, the aim is also to enquire into the preconditions of such thought. This study therefore eschews the development of an explicit 'strategy' (in the sense of a research strategy), but instead is much more concerned with thinking about its subject matter by means of re-thinking and reflecting upon different theoretical approaches and problems. The investigation includes a critical reexamination of the tradition of military-sociological research from the beginning of modern sociology to late-twentieth century theoretical approaches regarding the security-focused and/or war-driven aspects of modern society.

Franz Kernic unternimmt eine kritische Rekonstruktion und Setzungsanalyse moderner sozialwissenschaftlicher Theorien uber das Verhaltnis von Politik und Militar - bis hin zu aktuellen Ansatzen der gegenwartigen Debatte um die Risikogesellschaft und die Moglichkeiten einer rationalen Sicherheitspolitik"