100% this. I can't figure out why the need to parse hair so finely to avoid Starfleet being the military.
Because designating them a simple military organization is a bad (and sloppy) fit. What constitutes "military" has changed just in the past 60 years, 100 years, 300 years and let alone 200, 400 and 1200 years into the future.
(below adapted from my post in the chronological rewatch thread:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/chr...rical-perspective.309003/page-6#post-13919999)
Starfleet changed as the Federation grew. This shouldn't be surprising. The nature of any standing government institution will dramatically change as responsibilities grow. The Starfleet of a Federation that is 4 worlds in 2161 cannot be the same as one that comprises dozens of worlds in the 2260s, nor 183 worlds in the 2370s nor 350 "worlds" (potentially much of the galaxy depending on what a 'planet' is counted as) in the 30th century.
Trying to shoehorn what Starfleet is into modern terms makes no sense. It's like trying to liken the modern US Military to the Military of 1800. Yeah they share the name of the organization and the linage, but in almost no sense are they the same. Technically speaking, the modern US Military is a creation of World War II and everything before then is a series of adhoc armies erected around a lean meager skeletons. It's not pedantic or inaccurate to say "the US Military did not fight World War I, the National Army did and some of that went on to form the inter-war military that the World War II military was based around". The National Army was formed around the skeleton of the far smaller US Army.
To extend the metaphor, what Starfleet is in 2161 vs 2266 vs 2293 vs 2375 vs 3189 is likely something that would naturally change to meet the needs of the Federation over that vast length of time.
It's been said before "is it a military"? It's not. It's nothing we have a direct analogue for, and that's perfectly okay, because neither did America in 1800 have an analogue for the modern US military, or the modern Department of Defense (or most of US government).
I think it's safe to assume that Starfleet in 2161 was what the Rise of the Federation books broke it down as: split into defense, exploration, logistical, scientific and managerial branches for a nascent interstellar alliance. By the 2260s-2280s, it clearly has more of sharper dual role between exploration and security, with a heavier lean on security as the 2270s and 2280s bore on.
The most developed, mature Starfleet that we see is of the 2360s and 2370s of course. And we see lots of strange things to our eyes.
- We see uniformed civilians with no ranks or weird ranks (Kosinski).
- We see Starfleet running or co-running major scientific institutes across every field of study imaginable. We see Starfleet as front line diplomats, working in tandem with civilian diplomats.
- We see Starfleet negotiating trade deals and peace agreements, and facilitating interstellar relations, including the Federation wide communications network.
- We see Starfleet running a care center for illicitly Augmented humans.
How can Starfleet be all these things as well as the organization that explores space, charts sectors, makes first contact and shoots up the Borg?
It's because Starfleet of the 24th century is a unique creation to meet the needs of a 24th century interstellar state that different from those before and after.
If we want to liken it to anything, I think there is one fitting organizational type:
a uniformed civil service. While the United States has six armed military branches (Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Marines, Coast Guard) there are two more non-armed uniformed services - the NOAA corps, the uniformed branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the uniformed branch of the US Public Health Service, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. If anything, Starfleet is more like them, rather than the US Military. Even in 2371, the creation of a "new Federation Battle Fleet" was treated as a novelty by SIsko. It likely wasn't earlier in Federation history. And it certainly wasn't during the Dominion War, when Starfleet was organized into fleets. But it was a novel concept at that specific point in time, with the Federation not engaging in a major sustained military conflict since the 2250s.
Another modern day analogue, though it is a bit of a legal fiction, is the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, aka the Japanese military. Technically speaking, they're all uniformed civil servants. But these is largely due to Japanese history and constitutional limitations.
Military matters would be part, but not the defining part, of what Starfleet's mission profile is. The US Military's primary mission is deterrence - to prevent an attack on the United States through nuclear, biological, chemical, or conventional weapons, and to maintain the peace in key regions of Earth to prevent the development of a major military conflict the US would get drawn into. This is not Starfleet's primary mission. This is something it can do, but it is not why it exists. That makes it fundamentally different from the US military. But it is also something that likely waxes and wanes. From the 2390s to 2271, when the biggest military threat (Borg attack at Wolf 359 excluded) was the Cardassian Border Wars, military matters declined in importance compared to the 2280s, and then surged to be by far the most important thing during the 2370s as a result of the Dominion War.
In short Starfleet is the lifeform infrastructure of the Federation (which the US Military is not). It makes it work. It handles logistics, infrastructure, civil affairs, scientific research, even health care... and yes, it does military matters too. That makes it like nothing in the world today. But that's fine, because it's not the world of today.
Regardless of the closest modern analogue, Starfleet in the 24th century is clearly the provider and maintainer of the principle infrastructure that keeps the United Federation of Planets a consistent entity. It is perhaps this post-Khitomer development (made possible by the end of the Cold War with the Klingons), along with the introduction of the Excelsior class, and then later on replicator technology, that most made the Federation of the 24th century a tighter structured entity than the far looser one of the 23rd. Logically, that would directly figure to the explosive growth of the 24th century Federation too. (note: if you read the Chronological rewatch thread, one of my main points is that the Warp 9-capable Excelsior-class was pretty much a prerequisite for the 24th century's "Large Federation over the "small-ish" Federation of the 2nd half of 23rd century, enabled by the Warp 8 Constitution Class).
Even with my limited knowledge, I know there are military and non-military intelligence organizations!
