How to keep a country rigorous when not at war?
I'm trying to create a world that has a strong military and good citizenship even in times of peace. I'm kind of stuck at the moment, but I have done some research already, so here is a brief case study I have been putting together. I used evidence from a world called: "Earth."
Case Study: Earth
A famous Earthling named <PERSON> once said:
War should be the only study of a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.
<PERSON> puts it so eloquently that it sounds self-evident. However, <PERSON>, a political columnist of Time Magazine, submits that even a country as economically developed and militarily powerful as the US actually falls short of the mark:
Since WWII, yes we have had some problems, but [America] has not had any existential wars in which all of our young people have to go out and fight. In the interim, I think that we have lost a lot of the habits of citizenship. In contrast to the men and women in the military, we do not feel as if we are part of something that is larger than ourselves. We have re-tribalized our society.
What is good citizenship?
What exactly constitutes "good citizenship" is subjective to a degree. Whether you agree or not, to keep the scope of the question within reason, consider "good citizenship" & "rigorousness" here to mean:
* sense of basic unity. Putting the good of the government over the good of the tribe (to use <PERSON>'s framework). 714
Thus creating a "rigorous" state, in which citizens weight heavily how their actions impact the government, because of a presumed sense of basic unity.
Optional Musings
Notably, in the post-Vietnam era, it has become fashionable to be skeptic of the government. Hollywood often portrays government or deep-state villains. There is an anti-establishment vibe that pervades everywhere from off-shore banking on wall street to the Malthusian moral hazards of exploiting welfare.
Question
If America fails to keep society from being fragmented and tribalized, as per the earlier definition of "good citizenship", how can a fictional state that is similar to America learn from any potential mistakes and do better? Or would any such state be doomed to fail to stay "rigorous" in times of peace? Why or why not?
Further Clarifications and Assumptions:
* You do not need to encompass all the definitions of good citizenship in your answer. That is to say you can make it as broad or as narrow as you feel comfortable with. Just state which one(s) you choose and how it factors in to your answer. For example, maybe your solution focuses on political literacy and voter turn out. Or maybe you approach things from the military/veteran care angle.
* For the sake of simplicity, all solutions should adopt the organic view of government -- the individual only has significance as part of the community. Mechanistic (where government is for the benefit of the people) views I feel will distract answers from the heart of my question.
* I do not wish to create a state of brain-washed people who all drink the koolaid. Rather, I want a healthy degree of skepticism that does not take away from the good of the country.
* Not that we could every truly have such knowledge, but just for robustness, assume the government is relatively benevolent. Maybe there are inefficiencies or cases of corruption, but the government is not trying to murder its own people or something extreme like that. 207