Militär verksamhet förknippas ofta med disciplin. Men militär disciplin är inte någon entydig företeelse. I boken Disciplinära strategier undersöks hur den svenska arméofficerskåren successivt definierat och omdefinierat militär disciplin. Det görs för en period av genomgripande sociala såväl som militära förändringar, från 1900-talets början fram till våra dagar.

This study focuses upon the military professional strategies that have evolved in the context of the tension between the different rationalities of war-time organisation and a peace-time military establishment. In a case study of the Swedish army's officers corps' disciplinary designs during the years 1901-1978, a dominating garrison-mechanical approach is identified. This approach was consolidated in the interwar period, and followed efforts to reactivate a traditional Swedish military paternalism. The garrison-mechanical approach can be said to have involved a fusion of docility-creating techniques (especially formal drill) with a social quarantine made possible by a new barrack system. In an unproblematic fashion, it appeared as a formula for creating certainty in interbureaucratic relations as well as for establishing systematic control over conscripts. Furthermore, it was seen as a formula for the infusion of a firm, war-time relevant discipline. The garrison-mechanical approach was challenged, on the one hand, by the influx of external war reports, and, on the other hand, by the break of routine that the military preparations during World War II implied. However, the approach did not lose its dominant position until there were serious institutional pressures for adaption characteristic of the post World War II period. During these years, especially group-manipulative strategies of control - with claims of war- as well as peace-time relevancy - obtained foothold.