| ID | 146243 |
| Title Proper | Hypotheses on religion in the military |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Hassner, Ron E |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Recent U.S. military engagements in the Middle East have drawn public attention to the thorny issue of religion in the armed forces but the scholarship on religion in the military lags far behind these developments. Scholars have not developed a coherent research program around the challenges that religion faces in the armed forces or the religious issues that soldiers, commanders and military institutions grapple with on a daily basis. This papers seeks to initiate a scholarly conversations about the roles and effects of religion in the armed forces. I propose exploratory hypotheses that touch on some key themes that such a research program might cover, at three levels of analysis. At the institutional level, scholars should interrogate the relationship between religious norms and constitutional challenges in society and in the military. At the unit level, research should explore the impact that chaplains and group rituals have on unit morale. At the individual level, this research program should initiate a comprehensive investigation of the effects of individual religious practices on the mental health of soldiers and, in turn, the impact that participation in combat has on soldiers' religiosity. These illustrative hypotheses are far from exhaustive and should be regarded as invitations for future exploration. |
| `In' analytical Note | International Studies Review Vol. 18, No.2; Jun 2016: p.312-332 |
| Journal Source | International Studies Review Vol: 18 No 2 |
| Key Words | Civil-military relations ; Religion ; Military |