Militarism Ideals in Starship Troopers

Starship troopers borrows many themes from contemporary literature of the time and decontextualizes and emphasizes it in a futuristic version of earth that demonstrates how many core aspects of humanity, positive and negative, will never change. A major theme of the book centers on militarism in the future, specifically against an enemy of unknown origin. The novel sees a global military reverting to capital punishments to maintain order and punish members of the military who step out of line, including flogging and even hanging execution. 

The novel, however, does not criticize the military for extreme actions, instead it embraces them and celebrates the place of a strong military organization as a central, if not the central pillar needed for a strong society. These same tenants were often discouraged by contemporary writers who had just survived World War I and II, which serves as an interesting contrast to the violent and pragmatic view of Starship Troopers. Even towards the end of the book, the protagonist's father, who previously had urged him not to go into the military, joins the military himself after witnessing the destruction of his home and realizing the severity of the threat facing humanity.

Starship Troopers blends fantastic ideas of space-faring ships and hive-minded bug creatures with severe pragmatism, which is what has led it to be so well regarded in the science fiction world. It is one of the earlier novels to explore a subject so close to the hearts of many, especially those who had just crawled out of the experiences of World War II and the Korean War, while still keeping many of the core tenants of classic science fiction such as the exploration of other planets, spacefaring technology (In a time before humanity had even reached the moon) and complex conflict and study of alien life.