Dr. Ben Moeller publishes new article "Military education beyond the total institution: raising scandals in the Japanese Self-Defense Forces"

As Japan moves to double its defence spending, the country’s Self-Defense Forces have been engulfed in a spate of scandals involving more than a thousand cases of power abuse.

Published in Critical Military Studies, this article looks at how a key institution of Japan’s postwar effort to assert civilian control over its military has instead helped foster an organisational culture out of touch with society.

Beyond Japan, the article shows how informal traditions at military institutions can undermine democratically elected authorities and contribute to the cultural divide between military and society often scrutinised in liberal democracies around the world.

The article is open access and available here.