Combat Experience and the Foreign Policy Positions of Veterans

Abstract

ObjectivePrior work on the effect of combat on veterans typically measures combat experience as a dichotomous event. I extend work in this area by theorizing and empirically accounting for the number of unique combat experiences a veteran endures and how that associates with the veteran's outlook on foreign policy.MethodsI utilize an original survey that asks for multiple types of military combat experience, as well as foreign policy positions.FindingsConsistent with previous research, I find that veterans tend to be more hawkish than civilians. When I account for veterans’ number of unique combat experiences, however, I find that the more combat experiences that veterans endure, the less hawkish their foreign policy positions are. Moreover, consistent with literature from military psychology, this association only holds for veterans who express more regret about their time in the military.ConclusionsThe results should encourage public opinion scholars to consider the effects that the number of individual combat event experiences and regret have on veterans' issue positions more broadly.

Would You Like to Know More? Selection, Socialization, and the Political Attitudes of Military Veterans

“…While these studies are interesting, they tell us only about elite foreign/military policy beliefs. More recently, Endicott (2020) shows, consistent with the work on leaders by Horowitz and Stam (2014), that military veterans tend to be more hawkish than non-veterans, but that this effect is mitigated by combat experience. Other recent studies have worked to expand on Gelpi and Feaver’s population of interest by focusing on active servicemembers and cadets in the service academies.…”

How do veterans view gun policies? Evidence from the Guns in American Life Survey

“…To date, contemporary social scientists have tended to pay greater attention to the role of military service in shaping subsequent life-course transitions (Landes, London, and Wilmoth 2021;MacLean and Elder 2007;Werum et al 2020) than to the potential influence of military background on various facets of civic engagement and public opinion. This imbalance is unfortunate because the latter works have shown important links between military service and (a) civic and political participation and (b) political attitudes, particularly regarding those issues that have particular relevance with respect to the military (Ellison 1992;Endicott 2020;Wilson and Ruger 2021). It is beyond time to reinvigorate the sustained social scientific study of military training and experience as they bear upon the lives of veterans, their families, and their communities.…”

“…Researchers in this domain have long recognized that military service, and especially combat experiences, are often life‐changing events, turning points that can have a range of long‐term consequences as veterans return to civilian life (Elder 1986; Laufer 1988). Thus, investigators over the years have distinguished between the effects of military training in general and combat experience in particular in shaping political attitudes and civic and political engagement upon return to civilian life (Ellison 1992; Endicott 2020; Wilson and Ruger 2021). Although some early studies concluded that the effects of military service on political attitudes and behavior were minimal (e.g., Jennings and Markus 1977), subsequent research has shown that veterans, especially combat veterans, are more likely to volunteer for community affairs, vote, and engage in more high‐initiative political behavior, such as participating in campaigns, than nonveterans from otherwise similar backgrounds (Ellison 1992; Leal and Teigen 2018; Wilson and Ruger 2021).…”

“…Several studies have associated military background with political activism among racial and ethnic minority populations in particular (Ellison 1992; Krebs 2006; Leal 1999; Leal and Teigen 2018; C. S. Parker 2009). Some researchers have linked military background—and especially combat experience—with certain attitudinal outcomes and policy preferences for which time spent in service bears clear relevance, such as support for military spending and foreign policy attitudes (Endicott 2020; Klingler and Chatagnier 2014). A long tradition of scholarship has explored the possible implications of military service for nationalistic and authoritarian attitudes over the years, with mixed results overall (Campbell and McCormack 1957; Chatagnier and Klingler 2016; Schreiber 1979).…”