It is an honor for us to introduce this collection of essays, which is dedicated to an old friend and colleague who is no longer with us. It is an honor, but also a pleasure because we feel like continuing a dialogue with Jürgen; one that has never broken down over the years, revisiting and recalling the diff- ent places and occasions where we met, discussed, collaborated and had fun. We, that is, Giuseppe Caforio, Christopher Dandeker and Gerhard Kümmel who have been friends and/or colleagues of and research collaborators with Jürgen and who represent three prominent institutions and organizations with which Jürgen worked, felt that this book is something we owe to Jürgen and we are grateful that many people who at different times and at different places had contact with Jürgen and his work were willing to contribute a chapter to this anthology. Most of Jürgens studies, professional work and research activities took place at the Bundeswehr Institute of Social Sciences (SOWI). Jürgen, born in 1938, had joined the Bundeswehr in 1957 and had already worked at the SOWIs predecessor institution, the Scientific Institute for Education in the Armed Forces from 1971 onwards after having finished his university? st- ies. Since this institute was renamed SOWI in 1974, Jürgen belonged to the first generation of researchers that worked at the SOWI.

Dr. Gerhard Kümmel is Senior Researcher at the Bundeswehr Institute of Social Sciences (SOWI) in Strausberg near Berlin.
Dr. Giuseppe Caforio is President of the Research Committee 01: Armed Forces and Conflict Resolution (RC 01) within the International Sociological Association (ISA) and lives in Pisa.
Prof. PhD. Christopher Dandeker is Professor of Military Sociology in the Department of War Studies at King's College London.

Soldiers and Armed Forces.- Seeing Through the Stereotype: British Army Culture An Insider Anthropology.- My Pink Uniform Shows I am One of Them: Socio-Cultural Dimensions of German Peacekeeping Missions.- Looking for a New Identity in the Argentinean Army: The Image of the Good Soldier.- The Hybrid Soldier: Identity Changes in the Military.- New Roles for the Military: The Hellenic Armed Forces and the 2004 Olympic Games.- Rhetorical Persuasion and Storytelling in the Military.- New Methodological Approaches: Aspects of Online Questionnaires.- Civil-Military Relations.- The Public and the Military in Slovenia.- Increasing Military Influence in Danish Civil-Military Relations.- To Go with the Flow? Change and Persistence in Patterns of Civil-Military Relations in Germany before and after the End of the Cold War.- Conscription in Germany Today: A Military Necessity or a Mere Symbol?.- Thinking Globally: U.S. Cadet and Civilian Undergraduate Attitudes toward Social Problems.- Public Opinion and European Security.- From the War on Terror to the Terror of War: Spanish Defense Policy after 9/11.- Disillusionment and Hope: A Brief Reminiscence about Perceptions of the Russian-American Relationship in the Second Term of Putins Presidency.- Borders: Which in Between Most of Our Lives Has Gone.