- Between weeks 8 and 12, each student should provide a weekly reflection (500 words) on the data you have collected to date.
- What data did you collect?
- What is your initial impression of the data?
- How have the data you have collected this week changed/progressed your thinking about your research project?
- What challenges did you encounter while collecting the data?
- What are your next steps?
- Hosek, J., & Wadsworth, S. (2013). Economic Conditions of Military Families. The Future of Children, 23(2), 41-59. Retrieved on http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.bowdoin.edu/stable/23595619
Hosek and Wadsworth’s piece fills one aspect of the previous need I had to incorporate accounting-based statistics regarding US militarization that I feel will further strengthen my paper. I believe that striving for a presentation that combines quantitative and qualitative evidence will ultimately make for a more convincing, well-rounded research piece. This paper specifically speaks directly to service member compensation in the 21st century and post 9/11 area, and highlights the generally high respective levels of compensation in comparison to non-military members of the labor force who have obtained comparable levels of education. Hosek and Wadsworth also speak to the difficulties faced by service members after leaving the armed forces, highlighting stark average declines in overall compensation and overall economic well-being despite veteran benefits programs. In general, I believe this is where I see a direct connection to neoliberalism, as despite the glorification of US soldiers during their service, there exists a far more bleak reality that these men and women face upon exit of the industry, which is only exacerbated by shaky retirement plans and benefits from military institutions that are constantly allocating funding to the present and future rather than to those who have already done their service. I believe this piece will play well my next citation as well, working in conjunction to provide a quantitative aspect to my paper.
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/budget-fy2019.pdf
Here I have Trump’s 2019 US government budget which highlights monetary allocation for all of the different departments of the government. Despite the language throughout the report being rather political and convincing of the Trump administrations central tenets, rather than an objective presentation, the section highlighting the Department of Defense’s budget is the most interesting to read. The already ~680 billion dollar tax-allocation is to receive a 10% increase and there is a plan to reach roughly 1 trillion dollars in yearly funding within the next decade. The reasoning explained within the budget is laden with buzzwords and military-friendly rhetoric, emphasizing the growing threats aboard and the need to preserve peace through action, efficient, high-tech and powerful action and intervention.
- https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/how-military-spending-has-changed/
Nationalpriorties.org offers clear and concise snapshots of the overall US budget over the years and specifically highlights the massive increase in military allocation following 9/11. This is hard data that I believe will work very well in a supporting capacity to my other sources.
Weekly summary: I am feeling great and officially ready to roll for next week. Given the diversity of my sources and the fact that I now have a healthy combination of quantitative and qualitative data, I believe I can a very strong case regarding the effects of neoliberalism on US militarization in the post 9/11 era. I would imagine that there will be holes in my structure that arise as I now move forward in developing a structural outline, but I feel strongly about my abstract for next week and feel that I have plenty of information now to write a convincing paper.
Comments:
It is indeed interesting to look at the relationship between neoliberalism and military/militarization from the perspective of the stark contrast between the shortage of support for veterans, which cannot be isolated from the weakening of welfare state policies and the growing budget allocation for the military, which has something to do with perpetuating the US based neoliberal order. You could actually potentially center your paper around this contrast ( you would of course need to unpack it). This is just an idea.