“Casualty Panic”: Military Recruitment Models, Civil-Military Gap and Their Implications for the Legitimacy of Military Loss

Lebel, Udi

doi:10.1080/17419166.2010.492175

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…This framework however has been heavily centered on the wider strategic workings of large states, while eliding many of the ways in which individual soldiers shape the contours of post-heroic responses to modern conflicts. This elision can be seen, for one, in the preoccupation with the political and strategic restraints placed on the military by civilian pressure groups (Kober, 2015;Lebel, 2010). It can also be seen in the focus on the macro-strategic elements of combat motivation that tend to disregard the issue of combat effectiveness of small unit operations (MacCoun et al, 2006;Scheipers, 2014;Wessely, 2006;Wong & Kodditz, 2003).…”

Section: Post-heroic Warfare and The Idfmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunnel Operations in the Israel Defense Forces: Adapting the Warrior Ethos to Post-Heroic Conflict

Stern

Ben-Shalom

Gold³

et al. 2020

Armed Forces & Society

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This study presents an empirically grounded account of tunnel combat operations in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) within the context of “post-heroic” warfare. Current scholarship on “post-heroism” has viewed the technological and professional standards of contemporary military conflicts as distancing the individual combatant from the modern battlefield. Little attention has been given however to the ways in which soldiers themselves experience and adapt to post-heroic conditions. Findings based on in-depth semistructured interviews with 17 IDF tunnel combatants show these soldiers actively reinterpreting the strategic importance placed on distancing the warrior from the battlefield. This exploratory article suggests that an individual “warrior ethos” still resonates amid the professional and technological contours of post-heroic (underground) conflicts. By presenting a novel account of contemporary tunnel warfare from the perspective of the combatants themselves, this research sheds new light on the different personal dimensions that impact post-heroic military operations.

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Section: Post-heroic Warfare and The Idfmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunnel Operations in the Israel Defense Forces: Adapting the Warrior Ethos to Post-Heroic Conflict

Stern

Ben-Shalom

Gold³

et al. 2020

Armed Forces & Society

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“…Yet state leadership initiatives to overturn Diaspora mentalities occupied a prominent place in soldier commemoration. David Ben-Gurion held that, unlike Diaspora Jews, the ‘new Jew’ aspired to die with dignity, defending his life and honour and choosing a ‘beautiful death’ (Lebel, 2010:76). Bereaved parents internalized that message.…”

Section: Bereavement As An Institutional Fact: From Institutional Socmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A central role was played by parents who had lost their sons only weeks, sometimes days, before ( Yediot Aharonot , 3 June 1983). They placed newspaper advertisements, giving the latest figures for what they called the war’s ‘unnecessary’ casualties (Lebel, 2010). Placards with the same statistics were displayed publicly, and held up around the clock opposite the prime minister’s Jerusalem home (Naor, 1993: 92).…”

Section: Managing Emotional Restraintmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an analytic sense, hegemonic political discourse shifted to other public arenas in addition to the parliamentary one. And, most importantly, ‘casualty panic’ started to influence Israel’s political and military leadership, which created hesitation to enter into military engagements for fear of incurring casualties (Lebel, 2010).…”

Section: Managing Emotional Restraintmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A third group remained apolitical, seeking personal objectives of the exact circumstances surrounding their son’s death, with the ulterior objective of instigating far-reaching changes in the administrative culture of the IDF. The last two led to ‘casualty panic’ among decision-makers (Lebel, 2010).…”

Section: Conclusion: Institutional Management Of Bereavementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Panopticon of Death: Institutional design of Bereavement

Lebel

2011

Acta Sociologica

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Individual behaviors, such as loss-coping and “grief work” are affected in organizational contexts. In everything pertaining to coping with trauma in general, and loss more particularly, the individual is “trapped” within a political psychology that enforces the habitus and expectations of institutional dominance on the ostensibly intimate and private response. Regimes have perceived bereavement over battlefield deaths as a form of social capital that can be mobilized to enhance national loyalty and political support. Employing both existential/hermeneutic and institutional analysis, this study examines three diachronic models of bereavement – hegemonic, political and civil – and their political ramifications in the Israeli context. Drawing on changing parental conceptual orientations towards fallen sons and their role as cultural and ideological agents in public sphere, the article traces the movement of bereavement from its capture by the hegemonic state institutions to its creations under the domination of others institutions: political and civic and ultimate use in critiquing the political and military echelon. The article indicates the powerful impact of the social institutional-organizational context on the intimate-psychological context of coping with loss, by illustrating this phenomenon in the Israeli society.

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War Opponents and Proponents

Lebel¹

2014

Motherhood and War

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“Casualty Panic”: Military Recruitment Models, Civil-Military Gap and Their Implications for the Legitimacy of Military Loss

Cited by 12 publications

References 17 publications

Tunnel Operations in the Israel Defense Forces: Adapting the Warrior Ethos to Post-Heroic Conflict

Tunnel Operations in the Israel Defense Forces: Adapting the Warrior Ethos to Post-Heroic Conflict

Panopticon of Death: Institutional design of Bereavement

War Opponents and Proponents

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