Description
Book SynopsisWhat explains differences in soldier participation in violence during irregular war? How do ordinary men become professional wielders of force, and when does this transformation falter or fail? Regular Soldiers, Irregular War presents a theoretical framework for understanding the various forms of behavior in which soldiers engage during counterinsurgency campaignscompliance and shirking, abuse and restraint, as well as the creation of new violent practices.
Through an in-depth study of the Israeli Defense Forces'' repression of the Second Palestinian Intifada of 20002005, including in-depth interviews with and a survey of former combatants, Devorah Manekin examines how soldiers come both to unleash and to curb violence against civilians in a counterinsurgency campaign. Manekin argues that variation in soldiers'' behavior is best explained by the effectiveness of the control mechanisms put in place to ensure combatant violence reflects the strategies and preferences of m
Trade Review
This is a well-written, notable contribution to military sociology and security studies.
* Choice *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Production and Restraint of Military Violence
1. Participation in Counterinsurgency
2. Narrating Conflict and Violence: Ex-Combatant Accounts as Data
3. IDF Counterinsurgency in the Second Intifada
4. The Production of Strategic Violence
5. The Dynamics of Entrepreneurial Violence
6. The Production and Control of Opportunistic Violence
7. Beyond Israel: Counterinsurgent Violenceand Restraint in Comparative Perspective
Conclusion: Violence and Restraint in Counterinsurgency
