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This offers an introduction to the ROC army with a focus on its influential role in post-revolution society, the retreat to Taiwan, and its transformation over the decades. Originally called the National Revolutionary Army at its inception in 1925 in China, it was renamed the Republic of China Armed Forces in 1947. Since 1949, the force’s primary goal was the ROC government’s objective of retaking the mainland (China) from the Communists. As a result of its history, the military has long been regarded by most Hokkien-speaking Taiwanese (those whose ancestors moved to the island from the 17th century, as opposed to the so-called Mainlanders who arrived from mainland China in following the 1949 KMT defeat at the hands of the Communists) as being the “KMT army.” The extent to which this perception persists is very much of interest when determining the civil–military relationship in Taiwan. Thus, conditions exist for low popular regard for the military, especially as regards a military career. There exists a situation in which Taiwan society has moved forward, both economically as well as politically, from dictatorship, through democratization, and into a truly open and free society dedicated to fairness and equality, and yet the security situation remains unchanged, with the threat of invasion remaining ever-present. As a result, the military tasked with confronting this threat has remained one of the largest social organs on the island resistant to change.

The dominant military professional undergoes a shift in order to exercise the most effective leadership in a new threat environment. Moskos et al. identified how the focus of the dominant military professional changed from the modern period from one of a combat leader proficient in the art of war and in exercising effective leadership under combat conditions, to a more managerial role in the late modern military, and thence to a skill set heavy on diplomacy and scholarship in the postmodern era. Most examinations of civilian employees in the military are focused on civilian (i.e., ministerial) control, but the issue goes much deeper, and includes among other things the need to hire technologists and technicians for today’s modern electronic weapons systems, laborers to free up conscripts for training, and civilian contractors at all levels. Until Taiwan’s democratization, the degree of civilian employment in the armed forces was negligible. Those that did operate in conjunction with serving members were very much divided along the same lines as officers and men; with two types of civilian contractors: officer-type and soldier-type. Thus, the pattern of civilian employees in the ROC military appears to be concentrated at the high end and the low end – the high end being the planning and decision-making within the defense organization, and at the low end with clerks and other soldier-type employees. The ROC military’s limited budget makes service members a more viable option, keeping the penetration of civilian employees into the operational side of military operations down to a minor component.

The volume concludes by offering a number of policy recommendations that would help to improve morale in the ROC armed forces and make it a social institution that garners more respect from the public. While most such studies focus on strategic recommendations and weapons purchases, what is provided here is essentially about creating a new military ethic, one that makes the military more relevant to today’s society while meeting its purpose of defending against external attack. The ethic and character of the ROC military is very much focused on the ideals expounded by Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the Three Principles of the People. While these are laudable ethical underpinnings for an organization with its roots in China, they are anachronistic in today’s Taiwan, and do not represent the values of modern young people. While there is very little agreement among the nation’s ethnic groups and political philosophies, there is one thing that unites Taiwan people of all stripes, be they Hoklo or Hakka, Mainlander or Taiwanese, and indigenous person or modern urbanite: the land. It is the land of Taiwan that represents home and hearth, and thus the focus of any cultural shift within the organization that is the ROC military should be one that focuses on the military’s purpose of defending this land. All other policy recommendations described in this chapter stem from this paradigm, whether it be how to handle conscription and training, or the establishment of youth programs and ethnic indigenous regiments.

The vast majority of respondents see the role of the military as one of defense. The role of defending against attack from China is larger in all groups, although interestingly, those with parents from the mainland tend to think the army’s role is to defend “against another country,” and not necessarily to defend against China. The difference between identifying the name of the enemy and not doing so is of little practical difference, but an inability to articulate the name of the enemy is at odds with the military’s role to unambiguously defend the nation against exterior threats. Moreover, the close ties that have developed in recent years between the KMT and the CCP, coupled with the preponderance of old-guard thinking within the military, threaten to muddy the waters and cause the general population to see the military as an anachronistic, out-of-touch institution that is not in tune with the realities of the threat facing Taiwan. This would have detrimental effects on recruitment, retention, and morale within the military, and with its place in society. Given the history of animosity between the ROC military’s traditional role and the trend toward localization, it is little wonder that the survey results show that people are concerned about confusion in national identity, especially as regarding how it impacts the military. There appears to be an across-the-board consensus that the main problem facing today’s ROC military is confusion about national identity, with 38.1 percent of respondents choosing this option to best represent their belief about where the problem lies.

Homosexual activity in the military has long been dealt with harshly in the military by superiors and peers, yet officially at least, homosexuals seem to be largely ignored in the ROC army, almost as much are they are genuinely accepted by Taiwan society. Thus this dimension can be assessed as being in the realm of the postmodern military. Taiwan is a traditional Confucian-influenced society, and yet it recently became the first Asian nation to recognize same-sex marriage. The military, moreover, is a very conservative, risk-averse institution within society, and the way in which homosexuals are treated is illustrative of civil–military relations. The issue of homosexuals serving in the ROC military has not received the frank discussion that it deserves, neither in the academic literature nor in wider society. The vast majority (58.5 percent) of respondents in the current research expressed a preference for what essentially amounts to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as had been practiced in the United States military until the turn of the century. An impressive 30.8 percent expressed the belief that homosexuals should be allowed to serve openly, while just 10.7 percent said they believed that homosexuals should be kicked out of the military. Overall, these results confirm what has already been observed and paint Taiwan as a nation that is remarkably tolerant of homosexuality – especially in comparison with its East Asian neighbors. By connecting with the media, popular culture, and postmodernism, gay/lesbian/queer movements on the island have succeeded in presenting their community as avant-garde, trendy, and most progressive on the cultural front.

Force Structure is an important aspect of the PMMM and helps define the nature of civil–military relations. It is in the realm of conscription that the dimension of force structure finds particular relevance in the Taiwan context. Moreover, while there have been military restructuring projects and programs that have made detailed changes one way or the other, the big picture remains: Taiwan’s is a conscript-based military. Therefore, it is this aspect of force structure wherein the importance of public perception lies, and the results of this research show that attitudes toward military conscription are impacted significantly by self-identification, with the vast majority wanting the ROC government to keep conscription, rather than moving forward with the All-Volunteer Force transformation. In terms of the attitudes toward conscientious objection, results show that the younger a respondent is, the more they support conscientious objection. Moreover, the more supportive a respondent is to women serving in the military, the more they support conscientious objection. Taken together, this would seem to indicate that citizens, especially young people, regard the matter of military service as a choice that should be made by the individual in question – either male or female. Given the fact of conscription, persons with a valid reason for conscientiously objecting should not be forced to serve, or punished if they refuse to do so. Thus it seems that people recognize a need for conscription, whether as a means to promote good citizenship habits among young men, or because of the China threat, but that opting out of such a system should be accommodated.

Purpose: The present study investigates how the performance of Greek bank branching varies when the external environment causes dramatic changes that are reflected in recession and capital control effects.

Design/Methodology: A unique dataset of accounting Profit and Loss statements of retail branches of a systemic Greek commercial bank, closely supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB), is utilized. A profit bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is selected to measure the bank branch efficiency. The derived efficiency estimates are analyzed through a second-stage panel data regression analysis against a set of efficiency drivers related to branch profitability, diversification of income, branch size, and branch activity.

Findings: The results indicate that recession negatively affects branch efficiency in the short and long run. The occurrence of recession significantly intensifies the efficiency premium of branch profitability, reduces the efficiency premium of diversification of income (i.e., a negative efficiency effect is recorded during the early recession period), while mitigating the generally negative efficiency effect of branch size. The analysis of efficiency effects from the deep recession period that encompasses capital controls reveals the importance of diversification of income for the improvement of profit efficiency at bank branch level.

Originality/Value: This is the first branch banking study that explores branch efficiency alteration and the dynamic of branch efficiency drivers when the economy suddenly enters recession and afterwards when conditions are becoming extremely difficult and consequently capital controls are imposed on the economy.

Perhaps the most important aspect of civil–military relations, with implication for all other dimensions of this relationship, is how the public perceives the military and its role. This research uncovered some interesting patterns in this relationship, an understanding of which is crucial to solving the problems faced by the ROC military today. Results of this research illuminate an ambivalence in attitudes toward the military. As Moskos has amply demonstrated, militaries can be a part of society, or separate from the society they serve. During the 38 years of martial law, the military essentially controlled public perception through outright control of the island’s media. Today, with the post-democratization emergence of a free press, the military is constantly being excoriated by the media. It is important to determine the degree to which the general population believes this harsh coverage is justified, or do people think that the military does not deserve to be treated so shabbily by the media. Results of this research indicate that the more strongly one identifies as Taiwanese, the less likely he is to view the media as being unfair to the military in its coverage. Perception of the media’s coverage of the military is therefore impacted significantly by self-identification, as confirmed by these results: with those self-identifying as Taiwanese believing that the media harshness is warranted in covering the military. This is not an unexpected result, given that, as mentioned above, the military is widely seen as having been the KMT army, and antithetical to the push for independence, or at least localization.

This study is aimed at assessing the ROC military using the PMMM according to the perceptions of the citizens of Taiwan. The patterns that can be detected in Taiwan’s military show that it paradoxically spans three distinct stages: the modern, late modern, and postmodern. Taiwan’s is a modern military in terms of perceived threat, force structure, major mission definition, and civilian employees. It can be regarded as more of a late-modern model in the dimensions of dominant military professional, public attitude, and women’s role. Lastly, it achieves a postmodern designation as regards the role of spouses, homosexuals, conscientious objection, and media relations. In all, this paints a picture of a fractured military culture: one between two worlds. This should not be surprising: to many in Taiwan, Taiwan itself is a fractured culture, seeking to define its identity, and find its place in the world, and in history. In the dimensions in which Taiwan rates as a modern military, we can see this is driven by external factors. The geopolitical scenario in which the nation finds itself, that is, under threat of invasion by a numerically and technologically superior foe, is very much a pre-Cold War scenario. It exhibits a late-modern model in the dimensions of public attitude and women’s role, and a postmodern model when it comes to the role of spouses, homosexuals, conscientious objection, and media relations – all factors that are related primarily to how the military interacts with the society it protects. Thus, we have a bifurcated profile. The ROC military must, as it does, focus on a modern-era threat perception, just as it must, as it does, focus on a postmodern-era approach to women and homosexuals in the military.