From Mercenary to Citizen Armies: Explaining Change in the Practice of War

Abstract

Mercenaries went out of style in the nineteenth century. Statesaltered the conduct of war by raising citizen armies and eschewing theuse of mercenaries in practice or in law. It became common sense thatarmies should be staffed with citizens. Both realists and sociologistshave interpreted this change as a functional response to aninternationaldemand, either strategic or normative. Realists assumestates act strategically to insure their security in the system, sostates choose strategies that win wars.