Issue: 2447

Tobias Pfluger discusses some of the inherent tensions between the wider peace movement and those who identify as antimilitarist.

In this article looking at the development of the "selective refusal" (to military service) movement, Peretz Kidron argues that the Israeli experience proves it to be a valuable tool of protest.

Conscientious objection and the support of COs is vital work in itself, but often one of the reasons people choose to become COs is not that they have a fundamental objection to militarism, but that they have a deep opposition to the type of activities the military engage in on behalf of the state. In this article Kathryn Mathers offers a good example by locating the struggle against conscription in 1980s South Africa in the wider struggle against apartheid.

Interfering in the huge French army recruiting operation seemed quite an obvious antimilitarist strategy at the time...

A moral imperative or a political strategy? Howard Clark examines the role of conscientious objection in relation to the wider antimilitarist struggle.

Most antimilitarists like to imagine deserters and COs as heroic - if desperate - young men who stand up for what they believe and refuse to bear arms. But in reality they are as flawed as young men everywhere. Bojan Aleskov recalls the challenges of organising with deserters from former Yugoslavia, including the arguments about the washing-up!

In recent years militaries have tried to carve out a new role for themselves by engaging in "peacekeeping" duties in conflict areas around the world. This is the acceptable face of militarism. PN spoke with Bobi from the Group for Anti-Militarist Action in Macedonia about life with NATO.

In this article looking at calls for conscientious objection and against war made more than 100 years ago, Wolfram Beyer highlights an ongoing tension between the traditional leftist position on war and violence and that of libertarian anti-militarists.

Colombian conscientious objector Martin Rodriguez shares his experience of life in a heavily militarised society.

The dominant image of the US response to the events of 11 September 2001 has been one of a people wanting vengeance, of an inevitable cycle of "justified" violence - manifesting as the "war on terror". Being visible against war and violence is not a popular position and may get you labelled as "unpatriotic" or as a "traitor". But what about when the people calling for a halt to the violence are those who lost the most - the families of the 11 September victims? Peace News talks with Ryan Amundson from the Peaceful Tomorrows group about turning grief into action.

Siân Jones examines the "feminisation" of western militaries and argues that the gendered view of peacekeeping and peacebuilding, by both militaries and mainstream feminists, has created new challenges for antimilitarists.

Ruth Hiller talks about her experience of working with groups that challenge two of Israeli society's deep foundations: militarism and patriarchy.

From the cradle to the grave... Lothan Raz explains how ideals of heroism, strength and security, conspire to create an "inhumanly" militarised existence for Israeli men.

Militarism is deeply embedded in most human societies and Turkey provides us with a good example of how it not only infects and is maintained by a range of social rites and rituals, but works specifically in constructing masculinity. Emma Sinclair-Webb explains how...

Since 11 September the militarist rhetoric spewing out of the US and Europe has reached new heights. Ekkehart Krippendorff looks at the intrinsic relationship between state formations and the military in the post 11 September political environment.