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Armed forces
*** Shopping-Tip: Armed forces
:''For the
Elvis Costello album, see
Armed Forces.''
The '''armed forces''' of a
state are its government sponsored defense and fighting forces and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body. In some countries
paramilitary forces are included in a nations armed forces. '''Armed force''' is the use of armed forces to achieve political objectives.
The study of the use of Armed Forces is called
military science. Broadly speaking, this involves considering offense and defense at three "levels":
strategy,
operational art, and
tactics. All of these areas study the application of the use of force in order to achieve a desired
objective.
Organization
Armed forces may be organized as ''standing forces'' (e.g.
regular army), which describes a professional army that is engaged in no other profession than preparing for and engaging in warfare. In contrast, there is the ''citizen army''. A citizen army (also known as a
militia or
reserve army) is only mobilised as needed. Its advantage lies in the fact that it is dramatically less expensive (in terms of wealth, manpower, and opportunity cost) for the organizing
society to support. The disadvantage is that such a "citizen's army" is less well trained and organized. Historically, professional armies often triumph over much larger citizen armies when engaged in combat.
A compromise between the two has a small cadre of professional
NCOs (non-commissioned officers) and officers who act as a skeleton for a much larger force. When war comes, this skeleton is filled out with conscripts or reservists (former full-time soldiers who volunteer for a small stipend to occasionally train with the cadre to keep their military skills intact), who form the wartime unit. This balances the pros and cons of each basic organization, and allows the formation of huge armies (in terms of millions of combatants), necessary in modern large scale
warfare.
The armed forces in many larger countries are divided into three forces: an
army, an
air force, and usually a
navy (unless geography dictates otherwise). These forces may be solely for the purposes of training and support, or may be completely independent branches responsible for conducting operations independently of other services. Most smaller countries have a single organization that encompasses all armed forces employed by the country in question.
Various countries have a variation on this standard model of three basic forces. Some, following the French model, use four forces, an army, a navy, an air force, and a
gendarmerie, all with equal status. Other variations include South Africa (army, navy, air force, military health service), and Egypt (army, navy, air force, air defence.) The United States is generally described as having five armed forces, or military branches, which are army, navy, air force, marine corps, and coastguard, although debatably the last two have lesser status and might be considered theoretically subordinate to the navy.
In larger armed forces the culture between the different branches of a countries armed forces can be quite different. It has been said that "a navy and an air force man equipment" whereas "an army equips men".
The state of readiness of a military organisation may be indicated by its
Defense Condition DEFCON state (US) or
BIKINI state (UK).
Benefits and costs
Image:WorldMilitarySpending.jpg thumb|right|300px|Recent annual military budgets of those countries with the greatest military expenditure.
The obvious benefit to a country in maintaining armed forces is in providing protection from foreign threats, and from internal conflict. In recent decades armed forces personnel have also been used as emergency civil support roles in post-disaster situations. On the other hand they may also harm a society by engaging in counter-productive (or merely unsuccessful) warfare.
Expenditure on science and technology to develop weapons and systems sometimes produces side benefits, although some claim that greater benefits could come from targeting the money directly.
Excessive expenditure on armed forces can drain a society of needed manpower and material, significantly reducing
civilian living standards. If continued over a significant period of time, this results in reduced civilian research and development, degrading the society's ability to improve its infrastructure. This lack of development in turn can affect armed forces in a vicious cycle. See
North Korea for a typical modern example of this problem.
Transarmament is a recent movement to replace armed forces with
nonviolence training and infrastructure.
Armed forces of the world
{{see|:Category:Militaries}}
See also
*
List of countries by military expenditures
*
List of countries by number of active troops
*
List of countries by size of armed forces
*
List of countries without an army
*
Military unit
*
Militaria
*
Military academy
*
Military courtesy
*
Military fiat
*
Military history
*
Military incompetence
*
Junta
*
Military rule
*
Military science
*
Military tactics
*
Military technology and equipment
*
Military Aid to the Civil Power
*
Military Aid to the Civil Community
*
List of air forces
*
List of navies
*
List of armies
*
List of battles
*
Exchange officer
External links
-
DefenceTalk
-
Janes Defence
-
Military News
-
Directory of Online Military Indexes & Records - USA
-
US Military News DefenseLINK.mil
-
Baltic Defence College
Category:Military
bg:Въоръжени Ñ?или
da:Militær
de:Streitkräfte
es:Fuerzas armadas
fr:Armée
eo:armeo
hr:Vojska
ja:�隊
ka:�რმი�
nl:Strijdkrachten
nn:Militærvesen
no:Militærvesen
pt:Forças armadas
simple:Military
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sv:Militär
vi:Lực lượng vũ trang
zh-cn:æ¦è£…力é‡?
{{Album infobox |
Name = Armed Forces |
Type =
Album (music) Album |
Artist =
Elvis Costello and the Attractions |
Cover = Elvis_costello_armed_forces_1.jpg|album cover| |
Background = Orange |
Released =
January 1979 |
Recorded =
August-
September 1978 |
Genre =
College rock/
New Wave music/
Post punk |
Length = 40:05 (2002 edition) |
Label =
Radar Records UK Columbia Records US |
Producer =
Nick Lowe |
Reviews =
|
Last album = ''
This Year's Model''
(1978) |
This album = ''Armed Forces''
(1979) |
Next album = ''
Get Happy!!''
(1980) |}}
:''For the military meaning, see
Armed forces.''
'''''Armed Forces''''' was
Elvis Costello's third album, his second with the Attractions, and the first to officially credit the Attractions on the cover.
It featured a more pop-oriented sound, which Costello has attributed to his
ABBA fandom. It was
Record producer produced by
Nick Lowe at
Eden Studios in West London.
The working title of ''Armed Forces'' was ''Emotional Fascism'', and throughout the album Costello's lyrics are noticeably mired in
Militarism militaristic and
Nazism Nazi/
fascism fascist imagery ("Oliver's
New Model Army Army is here to stay," "are you ready for the
Final Solution," "two little
Adolf Hitler Hitlers," etc.). However, Elvis Costello has said that he never consciously intended the album to have a theme.
{{RS500|482}}
Image:Elvis_costello_armed_forces_2.jpg frame|none|2002 reissue cover
Track listing
All songs written by Elvis Costello, except where noted.
#"Accidents Will Happen"
#"Senior Service"
#"
Oliver's Army"
#"Big Boys"
#"Green Shirt"
#"Party Girl"
#"Goon Squad"
#"Busy Bodies"
#"Sunday's Best"
#"Moods for Moderns"
#"Chemistry Class"
#"Two Little Hitlers"
#"
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?" (Lowe)
NOTE: "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?" was not on the original UK release of ''Armed Forces''. It was first issued as a B-side on the single "American Squirm" by Nick Lowe & His Sound.
2002 Rhino Bonus Disc Tracks
All songs written by Elvis Costello, except where noted.
#"Tiny Steps"
#"Busy Bodies" (alternate version)
#"Talking in the Dark"
#"Big Boys" (alternate version)
#"Clean Money"
#"Wednesday Week"
#"
My Funny Valentine" (
Richard Rodgers/
Lorenz Hart)
#"Accidents Will Happen" (live)
#"Mystery Dance" (live)
#"Goon Squad" (live)
#"Party Girl" (live)
#"Stranger in the House" (live)
#"Alison" (live)
#"Lipstick Vogue" (live)
#"Watching the Detectives" (live)
#"You Belong to Me" (live)
#"Chemistry Class" (live solo)
Personnel
*
Nick Lowe - producer
* Roger Bechirian - engineer
*
Elvis Costello - guitar, vocals, songwriter
*
Steve Nieve - keyboards
*
Bruce Thomas - bass
*
Pete Thomas - drums
Category:1979 albums
Category:Elvis Costello albums
Category:New Wave albums
{{categoryredirect|Militaries}}
*** Shopping-Tip: Armed forces
