A Mercenary Army of the Poor? Technological Change and the Demographic Composition of the Post-9/11 US Military

Author(s): Andrea Asoni, Andrea Gilli, Mauro Gilli, Tino Sanandaji
Journal Title: Journal of Strategic Studies
Publisher(s): Taylor & Francis Group
Publication Year: 2020

Is the American military a mercenary army of the poor, as some critics of U.S. foreign policy suggest? In this article, Andrea Asoni, Andrea Gilli, CSS’ Mauro Gilli and Tino Sanandaji analyse individual-level data of two national representative samples covering the period 1979–2008. They find that, in contrast to the accepted wisdom, the U.S. military no longer primarily recruits individuals from the most disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Technological, tactical, operational and doctrinal changes have led to a change in the demand for personnel. As a result, on different metrics such as family income and family wealth as well as cognitive abilities, military personnel performs, on average, like or slightly better than the civilian population.

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