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MILITARY SOCIOLOGY IN ARMENIA: CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS

The purpose of the article is to introduce the history of military sociology and the peculiarities of its development in Armenia. Among the middle-range sociological theories, military sociology has an important place, which, was developed due to the need for theoretical and applied knowledge of the military field, as well as the possibility of developing theoretical, methodological concepts, approaches and expanding its use. In order to better understand the theoretical basis of military sociology, the scope of study and its practical significance, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the period of development of sociology as social science and the scientific environment, preconditions and reasons under which military sociology emerged. The stages of the development of sociology in the world were also reflected in Armenia, respectively laying the foundations of military sociology by the same logic. In the second half of the 20th century, the period of emergence and development of a sociological, psychological approach to the study of war was followed by a period of development of military-sociological research methodologies and their experiments within the institution, after which military-sociological researches were conducted in the last decade to identify a number of military problems. Armenia's regional military-political challenges presuppose the need for a consistent solution to the security sector's problems, in particular, ensuring the army's combat readiness, the introduction of staffing and quality improvement mechanisms, use of modern technologies, opportunities, and other complex actions. From the perspective of military-sociological research, there is an inevitable need for studies on highly relevant topics, which will be aimed at revealing the problems of the army and the development of the security system. Armenia's regional military-political challenges presuppose the need for a consistent solution to the security sector's problems, in particular, ensuring the army's combat readiness, the introduction of staffing and quality improvement mechanisms, use of modern technologies, opportunities, and other complex actions. A sufficient basis is needed for action to address security issues


MILITARY SOCIOLOGY IN ARMENIA: CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS ARMEN KHACHIKYAN
The purpose of the article is to introduce the history of military sociology and the peculiarities of its development in Armenia. Among the middle-range sociological theories, military sociology has an important place, which, was developed due to the need for theoretical and applied knowledge of the military field, as well as the possibility of developing theoretical, methodological concepts, approaches and expanding its use. In order to better understand the theoretical basis of military sociology, the scope of study and its practical significance, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the period of development of sociology as social science and the scientific environment, preconditions and reasons under which military sociology emerged.
The stages of the development of sociology in the world were also reflected in Armenia, respectively laying the foundations of military sociology by the same logic. In the second half of the 20th century, the period of emergence and development of a sociological, psychological approach to the study of war was followed by a period of development of military-sociological research methodologies and their experiments within the institution, after which military-sociological researches were conducted in the last decade to identify a number of military problems.
Armenia's regional military-political challenges presuppose the need for a consistent solution to the security sector's problems, in particular, ensuring the army's combat readiness, the introduction of staffing and quality improvement mechanisms, use of modern technologies, opportunities, and other complex actions.
From the perspective of military-sociological research, there is an inevitable need for studies on highly relevant topics, which will be aimed at revealing the problems of the army and the development of the security system.
Armenia's regional military-political challenges presuppose the need for a consistent solution to the security sector's problems, in particular, ensuring the army's combat readiness, the introduction of staffing and quality improvement mechanisms, use of modern technologies, opportunities, and other complex actions 1 . A sufficient basis is needed for action to address security issues through comprehensive theoretical-applied knowledge and research. The studies of the above-mentioned issues are of interdisciplinary nature and suppose both sociological and technical-naturalistic approaches. In this context, it is an inevitable necessity to consider the theoretical-research possibilities and perspectives of military-sociological knowledge in the field of study.
A. Atanesyan and others note։ "The social relations taking place in the society, the common norms and values, the behavioral models, as well as the problems and processes are reflected in the army, conditioning the structural features of the army as a social institution, the combat effectiveness, the relations in the military collectives 2 ". It should be emphasized that the social institution is an organized system of relations, social norms, which unites important social values and procedures that meet the basic needs of society 3 . The study of social structures and processes in the military sphere is in the field of military sociology, which views the army as a social institution and the military as a key unit of the social institution.
The military field is one of the most monitored areas and its peculiarities are considered as a clear set of values, rules, norms, values around a systematic defense goal. It is aimed at the study of military personnel as a collective, moreover, in terms of coexistence in combat situations in the conditions of more clearly defined goals and values compared to civilian life.
Among the middle-range sociological theories, military sociology has an important place, which, as we have mentioned, was developed due to the need for theoretical and applied knowledge of the military field, as well as the possibility of developing theoretical, methodological concepts, approaches and expanding its use.
Military sociology studies the functions of military structures as a social institution in war and peacetime, internal social processes and relationships, development, and interactions with other social institutions, as well as the social processes and relations of groups within a military organization.
One of the issues studied in military sociology is the social profile of the military: their gender, age, education, ethnicity, place of residence, language, economic status. The generalization of these features allows not only to get an idea of the types of servicemen in the army, their commonalities and differences, on the basis of which different informal subgroups are often formed in the military personnel, but also to make predictable and manageable the relations and possible conflicts between these subgroups 4 ․ Thus, the study of military sociology includes the connection of the army as a social institution; relations with other institutions of society, the study of servicemen's problems and ways to solve them; peculiarities of relations between military personnel and their members, adaptation of new servicemen to military service and adaptation of ex-servicemen to civilian life, issues related to the attitude of the servicemen towards the servicemen and military service, as well as public attitude and mutual trust issues, understanding the war as a social phenomenon, etc 5 .
In order to better understand the theoretical basis of military sociology, the scope of study and its practical significance, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the period of development of sociology as social science and the scientific environment, preconditions and reasons under which military sociology emerged.
The founder of sociology, Auguste Comte, in his "The Course of Positive Philosophy", addresses a number of topics that we undoubtedly include in military sociology today. Comte's analysis of the social crisis of his time led him to construct a social history of mankind based on an evolutionary, linear concept based on the enlightenment principle of human development. The military, along with religion, plays a fundamental role in this construction, especially before the emergence of the industrial, bureaucratic and civil aspects of society 6 : According to Comte, the first tools of man were weapons, and the first established power in the group was the head of the armed forces. In the early 1940s, real contributions to sociological research in the military sphere emerged within various disciplines. But the rise of military sociology was not a result of academic planning, but of development, as it was conditioned by a major social event, World War II. The development of military sociology was entirely marked by autonomy, diversity, and sometimes contradictions 7 .
Although military sociology has largely originated in the United States and has been applied to specific cases by The American Soldier's vast research, studies of the military field and war preceded it for nearly a century and they are traditionally considered "sociological" 8 .
Thus, the sociology of the military sphere is an interconnected set of theoretical-empirical levels of sociological knowledge. Depending on the research problem, in some cases, a theoretical understanding of this or that phenomenon is needed, and in some cases, the goal is to search for specific factors, their description, classification, etc. The importance of military-sociological research should be considered in the context of the creation of a general mechanism for ensuring the security of the state, the development and introduction of the ideological and militarytechnical system of national security 9 .
The military-sociological research of the military personnel focuses on the relationship and communication features of its members, emphasizes the formal-informal mechanisms of leadership, the dynamics of intra-group processes, the conflict-cooperative behavior among the servicemen-and other important issues. The sociometric technique developed by J. Moreno is used to study the above-mentioned problems 10 .
Topics related to military-sociological research include the totality of the relations between the military and the civil sphere, including the development of military-civilian oversight mechanisms, cooperation between military-civilian institutions, and a number of other issues developed by both Western and Armenian experts 11 .
Military-sociological studies in the USSR were conducted within the framework of very narrow problems, they were mainly of practical nature, they were not completed at the theoretical-conceptual level. Meanwhile, militarysociological research in the United States has contributed to both the development of sociology and the reform of the armed forces.
One of the important stages in the development of military sociology is related to World War I as the first unprecedented large-scale multidimensional military-political reality. During the mentioned period, certain grounds were formed to develop the methodology and technique of conducting sociological research in the Armed Forces.
During the years of the Soviet Union, the development and use of military sociology was outlined, in particular, after the lifting of the ban on sociology as a forbidden science at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956 a specific military-sociological research group started operating at the Lenin Military-Political Academy 12 .
Thus, during the development of military sociology, some directions were used in the American and European scientific and military domains, and during the Soviet years, some restrictions had a negative impact on the development of The formation of military sociology in Armenia was based on the sociological and military heritage of the USSR.
Representatives of the sociological and military circle in Armenia, national figures such as Garegin Nzhdeh, in their oral works, in one way or another referred to the existing and desirable features of the military, the public role of the army, the army-society relations, as well as intra-army issues. Naturally, they did not identify that content as a sociological or publicist idea in the field of military sociology.
The stages of the development of sociology in the world were also reflected in Armenia, respectively laying the foundations of military sociology by the same logic. In the second half of the 20th century, the period of emergence and development of a sociological, psychological approach to the study of war was followed by a period of development of military-sociological research methodologies and their experiments within the institution, after which military-sociological researches were conducted in the last decade to identify a number of military problems.
Attempts have been made to conduct military-sociological research in Armenia at the end of the Soviet years, also after the declaration of independence, when servicemen were provided with a formalized questionnaire, which was filled out summarizing the attitude and satisfaction of the soldiers of the military unit. At the stage of the formation of the Armenian army, the culture of military research was also formed in parallel, mostly manifested by the introduction of sociology and psychology research tools.
Armenia's independence and the Artsakh war played a pivotal role in the development of military-sociological thought and knowledge, as the "military" category became very relevant and in demand. At this stage a unique situation was created, military leaders became political leaders, formed the power, which meant that systemic and professional solutions to the army's problems were a priority for policymakers and decision-makers.
The foundations of institutional-systemic establishment and development of military sociology as one of the fields of sociology in the Republic of Armenia were laid by the Honorary Head of Chair of YSU Applied Sociology, then the founder of the Faculty of Sociology professor Lyudmila Harutyunyan.
On her own initiative, with the support of the then Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, the first textbook "Military Sociology" dedicated to Armenian issues was published in Armenian 13 . Some of the co-authors of this textbook today hold leading positions in the field of conducting military-sociological research in the RA, have permanent cooperation with the Armed Forces of the RA, carry out the expert-analytical activity, teach military sociology, including Lyudmila H. Harutyunyan, Arthur V. Atanesyan, Aleksandr R. Avetisyan, Artur E. Mkrtichyan. The course "Military Sociology" has been introduced in the educational system since 2006 at YSU Faculty of Sociology.
Unlike other middle-range sociological theories, the peculiarities of the development of military sociology are conditioned by the fact that the security system is somewhat isolated, which in turn puts the development of this field directly dependent on the functional responsibility of key individuals in this system and how the research is important for them.
The Armenian army inherited the structures and institutional components of the Soviet Union's security system, which were adapted to the newly formed armed forces at war. The AHTA Department, which has been part of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia since 1993 (since 2019, the Department of Moral and Psychological Support of the RA Armed Forces) carries out the moral and psychological support of the Armed Forces, including a comprehensive study of individual and psychological characteristics of servicemen 14 . During the implementation of the above-mentioned researches in the structure of the RA Ministry of Defense, the theoretical-methodological resource of sociology was inevitably used, and in some cases, the methodology of the sociological researches was used, but the research was not always identified and called "sociological".
Drastamat Kanayan Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) has been operating in the structure of the RA Armed Forces since 2005, on the basis of which the National Defense Research University of the RA Ministry of Defense was established in 2016 15 . The goal of the NDRU is to increase the level of efficiency of the security-defense system of Armenia by bridging research and educational activities. Since its establishment, the NDRU of RA Ministry of Defense has aimed to professionally meet the internal and external challenges to the RA national security system, as well as to adequately respond to current trends in the transformation and development of higher education at the international and national levels 16 . Within the framework of the structure, there is also the "Armenian Army" military science journal of the RA Ministry of Defense, where scientific works related to the field of sociology are published.
In 2012 organizations, an extensive sociometric survey was conducted in 6 military units of the RA Ministry of Defense, and in 2015, specialists of YSU Faculty of Sociology, with the support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, conducted a survey. Prior to this research, in 2012, on the initiative of Colonel A. R. Avetisyan, a number of leading Armenian experts and specialists of YSU Chair of Applied Sociology developed the "Military Leadership" course for the first time in the RA Military Educational Institutions, after which the first Armenianlanguage textbook in that field was developed and published. In general, many specialists in the professional community of sociologists have written articles, research and analysis in the scope of military sociology.
In the context of security policy, the Nation-Army concept was of crucial importance, within the framework of which the strategy and vision of the armysociety relations were formulated. In the realm of nation-army relations, the full range of effective army-society relations is particularly important, including an adequate public perception of the army's functions, an awareness of the need to participate in national defense, state defense, and the ability to participate in army building 17 .
In 2017, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia launched the "Ditaket" sociological research program (survey with demobilized soldiers) within the framework of the "Nation-Army" concept 18 . The militarysociological survey "Ditaket" was aimed at revealing the problems related to military service, giving an opportunity to outline effective ways to solve them, to respond quickly to the issues raised, to assess public perceptions of the Armed Forces, to make appropriate decisions and, accordingly, to plan defense policy priorities 19 . In 2019, under the coordination of the AHTA Department of the RA Ministry of Defense, a study of social-psychological issues was conducted among the servicemen of the N military unit of the RA Ministry of Defense. In the research, a combined use of sociological-psychological methods was organized through a questionnaire and psychological tests 20 .
Thus, military sociology became somewhat relevant in the post-Soviet 17 Ա. Աթանեսյան, Հայաստանում բանակի և զինծառայողների հեղինակության ապահովման հիմնախնդիրները «ազգ-բանակ» հայեցակարգային մոդելի մշակման համատեքստում, ՀՀ ՊՆ ՊԱՀՀ «Հայկական բանակ» ռազմագիտական հանդես 4 (90) stage of Armenia, with its special military-sociological problems and challenges. The Artsakh war, army building, the introduction of the Nation-Army concept and the reforms of the security system became a key impetus and had a significant impact on the development of military sociology.
Both in Armenia and in the world scientific environment, military sociology is unique in that there is a special duality among specialists in the field, who are divided between academics working in universities, research centers and military scientists working in other similar institutes.
From the point of view of ensuring the efficiency of the army, taking into account the adequate international experience in the modern reform system of the RA Armed Forces, continuous military-sociological research is needed on the public perceptions of the army as well as in the military groups, in order to permanently identify the sources of conflict situations and correct them 21 .
Thus, the study of military sociology requires, on the one hand, an adequate sociological professional basis, and on the other hand, a thorough knowledge of the military field. That is why researchers who have extensive research experience in the military environment or officers who have relevant professional training are more representative in this field 22 .
In order to make effective use of military-sociological theoretical-research capabilities, it is necessary to institutionalize continuous military-sociological research, including the complex research mechanisms to address and improve military service issues. Based on the principle of compulsory military service of the Armenian Army, it is necessary to conduct a research before military service start and after demobilization in order to identify problems (pre-survey and post-survey). In order to improve the diagnosis and improvement of interpersonal and intergroup relations of the military personnel, it is necessary to conduct sociometric research. The development of the field and the practical need are interrelated. And sometimes the distrust of the military-political leaders towards the scientific sphere has caused a decrease in a certain development. Therefore, it is necessary for the military, including the military leadership, the decision-makers of the defense sector to use knowledge-based management of the army and have at least the same level of interest in militarysociological research as the representatives of the relevant sociological field have.
Prospects for the development of military sociology can be outlined in three main areas: in the army, in the education system, as well as in the field of research.
This article presents the structures and subdivisions under the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, that have accumulated vast knowledge, experience, institutional memory, so there are systemic-structural opportunities, the effective implementation of which and the optimal use of available resources can contribute to the institutional development of military sociology.
The next perspective for the development of this interdisciplinary field is to include it as part of the educational component in the relevant subject curricula of educational institutions, including Military Institutions, Universities, Preliminary military training course at school, etc. It is also necessary to promote the study of the topic in the scientific field and the implementation of scientific research works.
It is necessary to emphasize the prospects of conducting research on the topic by research institutions, as well as the opportunities for methodological cooperation with relevant entities in the defense system.
More active discussion by the professional community on the subject of military sociology in general on the social science agenda is also important.
In case of effective use of the military research arsenal of military sociology, using professional resources, institutional-knowledge-based mechanisms can be formed, which will enable to study, identify and settle many issues in the military sphere, such as formal-informal leadership, non-statutory relationships, conflicts in the group, personnel management, army recruitment mechanisms, as well as perceptions of the army and military service rating.