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.

This is a VIRTUAL ONLY program. Participants will receive a link to join upon registration.

Andrew Chadwick is a military historian who focuses primarily on the conflicts of the modern Middle East. He earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MA in International Security from the University of Denver. Chadwick has also served over 10 years as an intelligence analyst with the U.S. Department of Defense and as an all-source intelligence warrant officer with the U.S. Army National Guard, to include deployments and rotations to Afghanistan and Kuwait. His first book—Part-Time Soldiers, which published with the University Press of Kansas—earned the U.S. Army Historical Foundations 2023 Distinguished Writing Award for an institutional-functional history.

This program is hosted by The Army Historical Foundation, the non-profit organization for the National Museum of the United States Army’s revenue generating operations and fundraising in support of the National Museum of the United States Army, and does not imply U.S. Army endorsement of the views expressed or the endorsement of any associated private and commercial entities.