Citizen Soldiers

The citizen soldier is inevitably linked to the idea of the patria, the homeland, which is commonly understood in terms of the need to defend one’s soil and to preserve one’s ancestors’ legacy. Thus, the very idea of the citizen soldier rests on the assumptions that all citizens have a particular duty to insure the defense of the nation, seen as a community of individuals sharing values, history, and past sacrifices, to which should be added their will to live together and accept future sacrifices. In other words, the citizen soldier is the one who accepts the need to engage in war and even to give his life in order to defend his community, that is, the nation he belongs to.

The association between citizenship and ...