Dr Shaul Mitelpunkt is a Senior Lecturer in U.S. History at the University of York, UK. His first book, titled ‘Israel in the American Mind’: The Cultural Politics of U.S. Israeli Relations 1958-88’ came out with Cambridge University Press in 2018. His writings appeared in journals such as Diplomatic History, Modern American History, Gender & History, as well as in the Washington Post. Shaul is currently working on a book project titled At Ease: How Americans Came to see Freedom from Military Service as Common Sense.

Soldier-Scholars of the World, Unite

In 1960 sociologist Morris Janowitz (University of Chicago) established the ‘Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society’ (IUSAFS) with the dual mission of enhancing knowledge and supporting military institutions. Its eclectic Membership ranged from veterans of the Office for Strategic Services, through U-Boat commanders, and officers of Dutch colonial campaigns. This talk relies on the papers of the IUSAFS to examine its domestic and international politics. It argues that as the U.S. and a number of other countries moved to end conscription in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the soldier-scholars of the IUSAFS based much of their epistemic authority on their experience as military insiders.

The paper interrogates the theme of ‘Uncertain Boundaries’ in several ways. First, it shows that the IUSAFS blurred international boundaries in the creation of a community of soldier-scholars: people who, while coming from different countries, found their collective military experience and interests to unite them as a coherent group. Second, the paper examines the crossing of professional boundaries in the transfer of knowledge. While soldier-scholars held positioned in institutions of higher education, they often based their intellectual expertise not on academic work alone but partially on their previous lived experience in military uniform as younger men. Lastly, the paper suggests that the uncertain intellectual boundaries encapsulated in the figure of the soldier-scholar endure to this day. The demise of conscription in the U.S. in 1973 only enhanced the public’s respect and gratitude to those who volunteered to serve, and further increased the authority of the soldier-scholar.