"Part-Time Soldiers" with Dr. Andrew Chadwick

In this presentation, Andrew Chadwick will provide an overview of the research from his recent book, Part-Time Soldiers: Reserve Readiness Challenges in Modern Military History (2023). Chadwick will detail how contemporary army reserve structures and policies employed by states preparing for major war emerged during the nineteenth century and how those structures policies have evolved in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In examining this story, Chadwick will focus in particular on the experiences of the U.S. Army National Guard and the army reservists of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)—two institutions that, for unique geostrategic and political reasons, have had to frequently employ their reservists in frontline combat roles over the past century. Ultimately, Chadwick will show how and why army reservists are playing increasingly important roles on contemporary battlefields, such as the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war, and the political and military implications of this dependency on part-time soldiers.