In the mid-1930s, some western sociologists began to use sociological methods to investigate military social groups. 1935, Germany published K. Demeter's German Army and its Officers, which marked the beginning of military sociology research. During the Second World War, some sociologists were entrusted by the government to set up special institutions to conduct sociological research on the army and war, and military sociology came into being. The American Soldier (1949), the first two volumes of the book Social Psychology of the Second World War by American sociologist S.A. Stoffer, is an outstanding achievement in the study of military sociology in this period. Since the early 1950s, the Research and Development Committee of the U.S. Department of Defense has directly presided over the research of military sociology. 1965, the publication of Military Sociology by sociologists C.H. Coates and R.J. Peglin marked the formation of this discipline.

From 65438 to 0962, the International Sociological Association established the Armed Forces and Social Research Committee, which played a guiding and promoting role in the development of military sociology research. During the period of 1978, at the 9th World Sociology Congress held in Sweden, there was an important topic to study military sociology: "Armed Forces and Society". At present, the study of military sociology has been paid attention to in different degrees in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and many third world countries. The General Political Department of the Soviet Union has a research department of military sociology, and the United States publishes a magazine of military sociology, Armed Forces and Society. In China, although the study of military sociology started late, it has achieved gratifying results. From 65438 to 0989, Nanjing University Press published Introduction to Military Sociology edited by Yang Yaping and Qi Yongxin.