Is the American military a mercenary army of the poor, as some critics of US foreign policy suggest? In this article, Andrea Asoni and co-authors Andrea Gilli, Mauro Gilli, and Tino Sanandaji analyse individual-level data of two national representative samples covering the period 1979–2008. The authors find that, in contrast to accepted wisdom, the US 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.
Journal of Strategic Studies
Insights from the final panel at the CRA Brussels Conference 2025: Shaping the future of digital regulation and competition
The closing panel from 2025 CRA Brussels Conference, “Digital Regulation in Action: The DMA, AI, and the Future of Competition” moderated by Dr Matteo Foschi