William Tell Militarism: The Swiss Model for Canada’s ‘Citizen Army’

Following Confederation in 1867, Canadians needed to move forward from their dependence on British imperial defence. Canadian militiaman Richard John Wicksteed was first to recommend adopting the model of the Swiss Army, a multi-ethnic, rifle-wielding citizen force powerful enough to ensure Swiss neutrality although surrounded by militaristic European powers. General Officer Commanding Edward Thomas Henry Hutton later proposed the Swiss model for a Canadian ‘National Army,’ echoed by Militia Minister Frederick Borden. In 1917, Colonel William Hamilton Merritt was the final advocate, drawn especially to the notion of equality in Switzerland’s universal military training programme. By this time, however, the Great War had changed concepts of Canada’s military needs from a reliance upon the defence-oriented citizen soldier to a more highly trained, expeditionary military force.     

The Militia Ordinance of 1642 and the 14th‐Century Great Statute of Praemunire

This article opens with a review of the important scholarship concerning the conflict over prerogative between the crown and parliament from mid 1641 through the winter of 1642. The resulting impasse was over which of these institutions would control the militia. This article argues that the Militia Ordinance committee was committed to ‘the legal process’ in developing its directive of March 1642. The balance of the study reviews the medieval Statute of Praemunire, its subsequent development, and how that law would have provided an essential basis for the parliament to assume control of the militia. The article concludes that the Long Parliament acted legally with the Great Statute of Praemunire as a reference point for the adoption of the Militia Ordinance. This conclusion rests on five evidentiary considerations: (i) surviving texts of Commons’ private diarists; (ii) the probable role of John Selden in the Militia Ordinance committee deliberations; (iii) the September 1642 publication of John Marsh's An Argument Or, Debate In Law of the Great Question Concerning the Militias; (iv) proposition five of the Nineteen Propositions; and (v) language parallels between the 1393 Great Statute and the Militia Ordinance itself.     

Soldiers under the Skin: Diversity of Race,Ethnicity, and Class in the Illinois National Guard, 1870–1916

A close examination of the Illinois National Guard (ING) between 1870 and 1916 demonstrates that contrary to the commonplace assumption of a homogeneous, white, middle class, native‐born membership, the ING had a very heterogeneous membership, drawing in rural and urban men, and men from an array of ethnicities, races and economic circumstances. Information on 2245 members drawn from enlistment data and the federal census, combined with evidence drawn from a wide variety of textual sources firmly establishes that this organization attracted men from a broad range of backgrounds. The ING stands out against other male‐only organizations of its time as an organization whose membership was consistently drawn from a broad cross‐section of the American population. The Illinois National Guard of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries offered an organization that could unite many American men across cultural and social boundaries at a time when there was much to divide them.     

Realpolitik and Jihad: The Iranian Use of Shiite Militias in Syria

The Shi‘a militias that have been involved in the war in Syria since 2011 were dispatched by Iran from neighboring countries, and they have exploited their position as aid‐givers by implementing a long‐term scheme of Iran regarding Syria. This article seeks to define the purpose and modus operandi of the involvement of these militias in Syria, as a case study of Iranian policy throughout the region. The essence and purposes of this regional policy has been analyzed using realistic and soft power approaches, alongside political thought from the Sh'ia Islam and the fundamentals of the Islamic Revolution; the reflection of this policy in Syria is identified by tracing reports and publications regarding the complicity of the Shi‘a militias in the war. The article claims that war‐racked Syria is a sort of test case for Iran protecting itself by attempting to spread its hegemony — and thus deterrence — across the region, a plan that is combined with and carried out through an ideological Jihadist promotion of an Islamic order. Accordingly, the Shi‘a militias are striving to ensure a lasting foothold for Iran in the areas in Syria that are essential to Iranian regional aspirations, by imposing Iranian political, military, and religious influences among these territories and populations.     

Cutting its coat according to the cloth: the Canadian Militia and staff training before the Great War

In 1909, Canada established the Militia Staff Course (MSC) to provide reserve officers with the basic staff skills they would need upon mobilization. At the time, the Militia severely lacked properly trained staff officers to run formations and draft mobilization plans. Although the course provided only elementary staff training, it reinforced the latent command and staff potential of a generation of officers, as later suggested by their effective and often exceptional service in the First World War. The MSC ultimately proved the first step towards developing a tradition of formal command and staff training in the Canadian Army.