From Recruitment Crisis to Systemic Prevention Mental Health Turnover in the Us Army
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Abstract
The study interprets the US training reform announced in 2025, which aims to recalibrate US military culture by partially reinstating the disciplinary tools of the „old school.” The central argument is that the tension lies not so much between the minister’s vision of combat readiness and current practice, but between tougher disciplinary pedagogy and modern, legally and ethically entrenched educational norms. The study connects two historical axes: (1) an overview of training and preparation processes after 1990, and (2) the „mental health turn” that unfolded in the 2000s, which expanded fitness from mere physical parameters to behavioural, psychological, and community dimensions. The study analyses, within a cultural and media studies framework, how the news media frames the military in terms of hero/victim tropes and how these narratives affect issues of legitimacy, recruitment, and retention. The longer-term goal of the research is to explore and compare the best practices of NATO allies, with a particular focus on the social embeddedness of patriotic education and the transferability of training models.
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Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovaciós Alap
Grant numbers TKP2021-NVA-10
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