The "second social contract" settles the relation between society, government and the armed forces. Soldiers put aside their own needs for those of the nation, make sacrifices and are in return entitled the government’s and society’s support. Furthermore, they can expect to only be deployed once reasons for their deployment were carefully weighed.
The increasing number of foreign deployments pressures the social contract. In HSFK-Report 10/2010 "Demokratie, Streitkräfte und militärische Einsätze: der "zweite Gesellschaftsvertrag steht auf dem Spiel" (Democracy, armed forces and military actions: the "second social contract" at stake), Harald Müller, Marco Fey, Sabine Mannitz and Niklas Schörnig examine causes and risks of this development. The authors recommend to more thoroughly prepare future deployments. If the decision in favor or against a deployment is not backed up by the citizens, "citizens in uniform" and society may become alienated.
The report can be ordered at PRIF at the prize of EUR 6,- and is also available as a free PDF download.