Militarism and militarization

Reviewing debates on militarism and militarization, this entry starts out by briefly tracing the historical evolution of thinking on these phenomena, which dates to the rise of large standing armies in the seventeenth century. It subsequently delves into critiques of Eurocentrism in scholarship on the diffusion of militarism across North/South boundaries. The entry then provides an overview of conceptual approaches that link militarization processes at micro and macro scales, drawn from critical geopolitics, feminist, Foucauldian, and Gramscian theorizing. These micro–macro connections are increasingly thought through in spatial terms, connecting militarization with processes of place-making. The entry ends by reviewing recent critiques on the concept of militarization, which argue that it is grounded in an untenable divide between civilian and military spheres. These critiques overlook how the social construction of civil/military boundaries is an essential part of militarization, implying that militarization scholarship is ultimately about the study of these very boundary-drawing processes.