Research Methods in Defence Studies: A Multidisciplinary Overview by Delphine Deschaux-Dutard

Author:Delphine Deschaux-Dutard [Deschaux-Dutard, Delphine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Security (National & International), Social Science, Research, Political Freedom
ISBN: 9780429584251
Google: OMDtDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 51341976
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

Specific requirements for the researchers

The challenge that researchers face in the area of defence studies can best be summed up in “Gaining entry while maintaining distance” (Ben-Ari and Levy 2014: 16). Any social science research is not just a collection of information about social reality, but an interaction process between researcher and researched subjects and requires a high degree of reflexivity (see Carreiras and Caetano 2016). Claude Weber (2016: 132) analytically distinguishes four types of interaction relationships: “complete participant, complete observer, observer as participant, and participant as observer”. The possibilities to keep aloof and objectively confront the subject of research are as good as none existent in the case of the “complete participant”. In practice, this case can occur, for example, when military cadets carry out their own empirical surveys in the circle of comrades within courses in sociology at military academies. At the other extreme on the continuum, the role of “complete observer”, interaction does not take place in the true sense. One could think of document analysing, for example of protocols from missions abroad. In particular, the two hybrid forms, i.e. “observer as participant” and “participant as observer”, are more typical and theoretically more relevant at this point.

Because of a relatively high degree of embedding of social science research in the defence organizations, the hybrid forms are relatively common. The role of an observer as participant is similar to that of a researcher who has received his education at a civilian university and conducts sociological studies in and about the military without having a military rank him/herself. The role of the participant as observer corresponds to a social science-educated staff officer, who goes through an assignment as a researcher in an in-house research institute. This role requires a high level of self-reflexivity to avoid the pitfalls of “going native”. In any case, experience shows that the hybrid types are not only common but also adequate for conducting defence studies: “The very position of dual membership in military and civilian organizations carries great potential for research” (Ben-Ari 2016: 30). Claude Weber highlights the advantages of one of the two hybrid types, too: “To be a participant observer is a very attractive position […] because it allows the researcher to be in a direct and ‘official’ contact with the studied group” (Weber 2016: 135). Overcoming access barriers to the field is then easier and stakeholders can more easily be convinced of the meaningfulness (and even the sincerity) of a study – especially if the research is based on an order from the MoD.

Firstly, a researcher in the area of defence studies must therefore be particularly sensitive to his/her understanding of one’s role and to the interaction process with the research subject. He or she is therefore confronted with what is discussed as the “insider/outsider dilemma” (Deschaux-Dutard 2018: 42). Secondly, a particular sensitivity for the point of time of the collection of data, for both qualitative and quantitative studies, should be emphasized. Here is an example from the literature. Particularly in

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