militarism

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Glorification of the ideals of a professional military class.
• noun Predominance of the armed forces in the administration or policy of the state.
• noun A policy in which military preparedness is of primary importance to a state.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The military spirit; addiction to war or military practices; the maintenance of national power by means of standing armies.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A military state or condition; a military system; reliance on military force in administering government.
• noun The spirit and traditions of military life.
• noun The view that military strength, efficiency and values should dominate the country's public policy choices and take precedence over other interests.
• noun The policy of maintaining a large military force, even in peacetime; -- a term usually used by opponents of such a policy on the assumption that such a large force is unnecessary for national defense.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun an ideology which claims that the military is the foundation of a society's security, and thereby its most important aspect

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a political orientation of a people or a government to maintain a strong military force and to be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests