An important feature of civil-military relations is the way in which states recognize the sacrifices that the men and women of the armed forces give to their country and provide care and support for them and their families once they leave the military as veterans. Yet states differ not only in the levels and kinds of support provided for ex-service personnel but also in their very definition of what a veteran is. This article examines the case of the United Kingdom from an international perspective. It explains how and why the United Kingdom has developed a particular—and inclusive—definition of veteran and, in conjunction with veterans interest groups, a strategy for allocating scarce resources to this group. The article analyzes attempts to mitigate the effects of social exclusion suffered by some subgroups within the veteran population, although the great majority does well at least in terms of short-term employment prospects. It concludes with an analysis of the dilemmas that are likely to confront those responsible for developing policy on veterans issues in the future, especially where to target scarce resources in such an inclusively defined group of the population.
These features set the military apart from other high-risk organizations such as the police and fire services, although this viewis not universally accepted. See the useful discussion in S. Soeters, A. Weibull, and D. Winslow, “Military Culture”, in Handbook of the Sociology of the Military, ed. G. Caforio (New York: Plenum, 2003), 237–254. This contract varies between states that rely on conscripts and those that rely on vol-unteers for their personnel. The all-volunteer force has become the master trend for modern Western armed services since the 1950s and especially since the end of the cold war. See J. Burk, “Military Mobilization in Modern Societies,” in Handbook of the Sociology of the Military, ed. G. Caforio (New York: Plenum, 2003), 111-30; and K. W. Haltiner, “The Decline of the European Mass Armies,” in Handbook of the Sociology of the Military, ed. G. Caforio (New York: Plenum, 2003), 361-84.
2.
Onhousing, see, for example, Richard Tessler, Robert Rosenheck, and Gail Gamache, “Homeless Veterans of the All-Volunteer Force: ASocial Selection Perspective,”Armed Forces & Society29, no. 4 (2003): 509-524.
3.
The relevant details include the following: U.S. (pop. 292 million) definition: The Department of Veterans Affairs defines veteran as one who is currently on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, has honorably served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces for at least two years, is currently serving on Army Reserve or National Guard duty, or is a dependent of a qualified veteran, that is, deceased or 100 percent disabled owing to service-connected causes, under chapter 35 of the Federal Regulations. Note, the U.S. Department of Education defines veterandifferently. Federal regulations governing Title IV financial-aid programs define veteranas one who has engaged in active service in the U.S. Armed Forces (army, navy, air force, marines, and coast guard) or was a cadet or midshipman at one of the service academies and was released under a condition other than dishonorable; University of North Carolina Veterans Service Handbook, http://www.uncw.edu/finaid/Veterans/index.htm (accessed June 1, 2004). Veteran population in the United States and Puerto Rico is 26,549,704; Department of Veterans Affairs, http://www.va.gov/vetdata/Census2000/index.htm (accessed June 1, 2004). Australian (pop. 19.8 million) definition:Aveteran is a person who has eligiblewar service or to whom a pension is payable in respect of injury or death resulting from an occurrence after July 31, 1962, as a result of action by hostile forces orwarlike operations against hostile forces, outside Australia, as a member of the Australian Defence Force. Aveteran includes a person who had continuous full-time service as a member of the Defence Force during World War I or World War II, was an Australian mariner during World War II, had operational service, served in an operational area andwas allotted for duty, was amember of a unit that was allotted for duty in that operational area, has warlike or nonwarlike service, or is a Commonwealth or Allied veteran who was domiciled in Australia immediately before his or her appointment or enlistment and who rendered continuous full-time service in an operational area. Under certain conditions, some civilians who served during World War I or World War II are also veterans. Commonwealth or Allied veterans and mariners are eligible for service pension if they have qualifying service. There are currently 521,700 veterans in Australia according to the 2003 annual report of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Canadian (pop. 31.49 million) definition:There was never a definition of veteranprior to 2000 for the Royal Canadian Legion and prior to 2001 for Department of Veterans Affairs (VAC). Even the Canadian Pension Act does not have a definition of veteran. In early 2000, the Royal Canadian Legion introduced a definition that reads as follows: “Aveteran is any person who is serving or who has honourably served in the Armed Forces of Canada, the Commonwealth or its wartime allies: or who has served in the Merchant Navy or Ferry Command during wartime.” In 2001, the VAC and the Department of National Defence (DND) extended veteran status to former Canadian forces members and reserve force members who meet DND's military occupational classification requirements and who have been released from the forces with an honorable discharge; Royal Canadian Legion Web site, http://www.legion.ca/asp/docs/home/faq_e.asp (accessed June 15, 2004); Veterans Affairs Performance Report for the period ending March 31, 2003, http://www.tbssct.gc.ca/rma/dpr/02-03/VA-AC/VA-AC03D_e.asp (accessed June 16, 2004). The VAC pays benefits in one form or another to some 209,000 veterans according to their 2003Performance Report, Veterans Affairs Performance Report for the period ending March 31, 2003, http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/dpr/02-03/VA-AC/VA-AC03D_e.asp (accessed June 16, 2004). U.K. (pop. 59.2 million) definition:All those who have served in the armed services including widows/widowers and dependants, all of whomare included in the veterans community.
4.
A. Wyatt, Development of the Veterans Initiative by the Ministry of Defence, Case Study(Sunningdale Park, UK: The International Comparisons in Policy Making Team, International Public Service Group, Cabinet Office's Centre for Management and Policy Studies, the Civil Service College, March 2002), 10-10. As one of our Australian interviewees put it, “Only in one War (World War II) didwar come to Australia; in the Boer War, World War I, the Korean War, the Malayan conflicts, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the current War on Terrorism, our people went away to fight. So in Australia we often say ‘ he is a returned man’, meaning that he has returned from war, and our equivalent of your British Legion is called the Returned and Services League. The evolution of this type of definitionwas historical more than an act of conscious policy—it arose because of World War I.”
5.
Wyatt, Development of the Veterans Initiative, 10-10.
6.
Personal communication with Professor Hugh Smith. On Australia, see also http://www.ausvets.powerup.com.au/. Interview with Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials.
7.
See the discussion in B. Boene, C. Dandeker, J. Kuhlmann, and J. van der Meulen, Facing Uncertainty: The Swedish Military in International Perspective(Karlstad, Sweden: National Defence College, Department of Leadership, 2000), 129-175.
8.
See H. Strachan, Politics of the British Army(Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1997), 195-233; and H. Strachan, “The Civil-Military ‘Gap’ in Britain,” Journal of Strategic Studies 26 (2003): 43-63.
9.
H. Stanhope, The Soldiers: An Anatomy of the British Army(London: Hamish Hamilton, 1979), 281-281 (emphasis added).
10.
It is no coincidence that the dominant tradition of farewell and neglect has been accompanied by a lack of sustained scientific interest in what happens to ex-service personnel since the Second World War. Before 1945, therewas a good deal of interests, while afterward, it became conspicuous by its absence, partly because of the gradual decline of medical services within the armed forces and the corresponding neglect of academic research. Consequently, there is a paucity of robust social and psychological research. Large-scale comprehensive study of the health effects of a particular campaign did not take place until after the Gulf War (1990-1991); C. Unwin, N. Blatchley, W. Coker, S. Ferry, M. Hotopf, L. Hull, K. Ismail, I. Palmer, A. David, and S. Wessely, “The Health of United Kingdom Servicemen who Served in the Persian Gulf War,”Lancet353 (1999): 169-178. This study was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and was only later supplemented by a UK-funded study; N. Cherry, F. Creed, A. Silman, G. Dunn, D. Baxter, J. Smedley, S. Taylor, and G. Macfarlane, “Health and Exposures of United Kingdom Gulf War Veterans. Part 1: The Pattern and Extent of Ill Health,” Occupational and Environmental Medicine 58 (2001): 291-98.
11.
N. Barr, “Veterans”, in The Oxford Companion to Military History, ed. R. Holmes (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001), 950-950 (emphasis added).
12.
ibid., 951.
13.
Wyatt, Development of the Veterans Initiative, paragraph 2.
14.
ibid., 9.
15.
These views were expressed in interviews conducted by the authors. Christopher Dandeker, Simon Wessely, Amy Iversen, and John Ross, Improving the Delivery of Cross-Departmental Support and Services for Veterans(Joint Report of the Department of War Studies and Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, to the UK MoD, July 2003), http://www.mod.uk/publications/vets_svcs/index.html.
16.
See details at http://www.va.gov/pubaff/fedben/Fedben.pdf; see also Wyatt, Development of the Veterans Initiative, 9-9. Wyatt observes that the “USA has a two-tier system which differentiated between those whohave served only in their own country and those who have been in operations overseas. It also gives additional recognition to veterans with more than 20 years service. The UK does not differentiate between location, type and length of service;” Wyatt, Development of the Veterans Initiative, 13. It is also important to bear in mind the wider institutional differences between the United States and the United Kingdom since 1945. One of the main drivers for a veterans program in the United States was the lack of universal health care; the presence of this via the National Health Service is, in turn, the main argument against such a provision in the United Kingdom.
17.
This definitionwas formulated in 1990, when the Dutch Ministry of Defense published its memorandum on veterans.
18.
A report by the homeless charity Crisis estimates that 25 percent of rough sleepers had served in the armed forces, while a further report by the Social Exclusion Unit highlighted that between a quarter and onefifth of rough sleepers had once served. See S. Ballintyne and S. Hanks, Lest We Forget: Ex-Servicemen and Homelessness(London: Crisis, December 2000); and Social Exclusion Unit, Rough Sleeping, http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/seu/index/publishe/htm. However, these figures should be treated with caution; for example, officials in the Veterans Affairs secretariat within the MoD estimate that a more realistic figure would be nearer 12 percent.
19.
The duty-of-care theme continues to generate public interest and debate, not least as a result of the controversy surrounding the deaths of trainee soldiers at the Deepcut military base. See the inquiry into Deepcut by the Surrey police at http://www.surreypolice.org.uk/deepcut_final.pdf. Indeed, the House of Commons Select Committee on Defence is holding an inquiry on the subject. See the terms of reference that were announced in April 2004, at http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/defence_committee/def190304___no__17.cfm.
20.
A recent high-court decision that a former soldier who claims to have Gulf War Syndrome is entitled to a war pension means other veterans can make the same claim; S. Randall, Falling Out(London: Crisis, 1994); and G. Gunner and H. Knott, Homeless on Civvy Street(London: PS Opinion Research, 1997).
21.
See Seymour Leventman, “Official Neglect of Vietnam Veterans,”Journal of Social Issues31, no. 4 (1975): 171-181.
22.
On the tensions between valuing the sacrifices of veterans and valuing budgetary constraints, see Wilbur J. Scott, “PTSD and Agent Orange: Implications for a Sociology of Veterans' Issues,”Armed Forces & Society18 (Summer 1992): 592-612.
23.
Social exclusion using the framework identified by the Better Regulation Taskforce (protecting vulnerable people) and the Social Exclusion Unit's “Preventing Social Exclusion” but modified for the particular situation of veterans; Social Exclusion Unit, Report 1998(London: Rough Sleepers Unit).
24.
Interview with MoD officials.
25.
See the discussion in Dandeker et al., Improving the Delivery.
26.
Although the UKarmed services have been reduced by 35 percent over the past decade, they still face the challenge of recruiting and retaining personnel. Just now, recruitment is satisfactory, with the real concern being to ensure that the level of quality is maintained during the processes of recruitment and retention. For the total of UK armed services, the figures indicate a 6,720 deficit in other ranks with the officer corps falling short by 210. The overall level of personnel for the armed services is 164,850. The single-service shortages are as follows. The 2003 army soldier deficit is 4,940 while there is a surplus of officers of 90. This compares with the Royal Navy, which has deficits of 830 other ranks and 80 officers. For the Royal Air Force, there is a 950 deficit in other ranks but a surplus of 200 officers. See Defence Analytical Services Agency (MoD agency), UK Defence Statistics, http://www.dasa.mod.uk/natstats/ukds/2003/chap2frame.html.
27.
See Patricia M. Shields, “A New Paradigm for Military Policy: Socio-Economics,”Armed Forces & Society19, no. 4 (Summer 1993): 511-532.
28.
Interviews with Dutch and French Ministry of Defense officials and discussions with Professor B. Boene, dean of Military Academy, St Cyr, France.
29.
On the utility of business and equity arguments in interpreting other aspects of personnel issues in the armed services, such as the recruitment of members of minority ethnic communities, see C. Dandeker and D. Mason, “Diversifying the Uniform? The Participation of Minority Ethnic Personnel in the British Armed Services,”Armed Forces & Society30, no. 1 (Fall 2003): 481-507. On the case of women, see C. Dandeker and M. Wechsler Segal, “Gender Integration in Armed Forces: Recent Policy Developments in the United Kingdom,” Armed Forces & Society 23, no. 1 (Fall 1996): 29-47.
30.
Service charities, including the Royal British Legion, Combat Stress, and the Soldiers', Sailors', Airmen and Families Association were interviewed as part of the King's College study; Dandeker et al., Improving the Delivery.
31.
Interviews with MoD officials.
32.
The international dimension of this discussion draws on Dandeker et al., Improving the Delivery, 19-30.
33.
Communication Strategy for Veterans, MoD, September 2003, C30.
34.
As far as the authors are concerned, each of these components will require its own microstrategy: for example, and controversially, at least for some stakeholders, priority has been given to targeting resources to those veterans who are most vulnerable to social exclusion. In this context, care is about not only repair but also prevention by seeking to do more to protect the vulnerable while in service and as they leave; targeting and assisting the vulnerable once they leave and “sign-posting” problem cases for other departments so that even where the problems are not MoDor service attributable, they are picked up by other departments before they become even more expensive problems to fix.
35.
D Resettlement, Fourth Annual Report(MoD with Coutts Consulting Group, 2001-2002); A. Iversen, V. Nikolaou, N. Greenberg, C. Unwin, L. Hull, M. Hotopf, C. Dandeker, J. Ross, and S. Wessely, “What Happens to British Veterans When They Leave the Armed Forces?” European Journal of Public Health 15, no. 2 (2005): 175-84. Of service personnel, 85 percent are in employment six months after leaving the armed forces. However, on a cautionary note, what happens after that is unclear.
36.
These useful distinctions between the “successful,” “disadvantaged,” and “vulnerable” veterans were developed in early discussions and drafts of the strategy for veterans.
37.
See Dandeker et al., Improving the Delivery, 51-51.
