Rethinking militarism as ideology: The critique of violence after security

Abstract This article argues for a reformulation of the concept of ‘militarism’ as ideology. Although existing sociological approaches have been suspicious of an understanding of militarism as ideology, these criticisms have misrepresented the implications of adopting such a concept. By returning to Althusser’s classic study of ideology, and complementing it with more recent psychoanalytic approaches that emphasize the centrality of desire, the article shows that thinking of militarism as ideology can be complementary to existing sociological studies. Moreover, though, it argues that such a reformulation brings with it key advantages. This is because it foregrounds the task of anti-militarist critique in a way that has hitherto been lacking. To demonstrate this point, the article considers the contribution that a concept of militarism as ideology could make to existing debates in critical security studies. Recent debates in this subfield have examined the ethical ramifications of various understandings of security for the pursuit of violence. However, these arguments have frequently reached a deadlock because of an inadequate understanding of the nature of militarism, one that borrows implicitly from prevalent sociological definitions of the concept. Instead, the article presents an understanding of militarism as ideology as a way out of these difficulties, showing how a critique of violence based on this concept of militarism rather than security can be more effective.