training, part-time soldiers are unlikely to be relied upon except in limited
roles. The most important militia in a modern country is the National Guard
in the USA, the successor to the militias raised by the colonial governments to
fight the War of Independence and which, in the form of forces raised by the
states, formed the backbone of US military force until 1916. Each state has its
own National Guard force, under the control of its governor, though they can
be ‘nationalized’ by the president in an emergency. National Guard units have
been used in foreign wars, but presidents are reluctant to do this, and no militia
forces were used, for example, in theVietnam War.
Reserves are the stock of people in the population who have some
experience of full-time military service, and who retain an obligation to rejoin
themilitaryin a national emergency. Typically ex-soldiers have an obligation
to report to their units once or twice a year, possibly to undergo refresher
training, and hold themselves available for emergency full-time service for a
period of several years after their initial enlistment has ended. Reserves were
the primary source of military personnel for large continental armies up to
1945, and two or three years of full-time conscript service was intended
primarily as a training school for a very large force, most of whom at any one
time would be in productive employment in civilian life. Reserves have not
often been called up by Western countries in the post-war years, though they
played a major role in theKorean Warand in the Anglo-French invasion of
Suez in 1956 (seeArab–Israeli Conflict), and limited numbers were sum-
moned during theGulf War. Israel, however, has frequently called up large
reserve forces to fight in its conflicts with its neighbours. Towards the end of
thecold warmany military theorists were urging much greater reliance on
reserves, partly for economic reasons but also as they could act as a restraint on
offensive ambitions by governments. Both the USA and the United Kingdom
needed to mobilize special reserve categories in the aftermath of the terrorist
attacks on the USA on 11 September tragedy of 2001 and the ensuing conflict
in Afghanistan.
Mill, James
James Mill (1773–1836), along with JeremyBentham, was one of the
founders of theutilitariansocial theories that came to dominate British,
and to a lesser extent American, social thought during the 19th century.
Though less influential than his close friend Bentham, and philosophically
much less important than his son John StuartMill, James Mill’s writings were
probably more accessible than those of the other early founders. In particular
he wrote more directly about political theory than did Bentham. He advocated
an extension of electoral democracy rather before this became generally
accepted among even radical middle class intellectuals. His theory of democ-
Mill, James