Item Details
Skip Navigation Links
   ActiveUsers:881Hits:20882883Skip Navigation Links
Show My Basket
Contact Us
IDSA Web Site
Ask Us
Today's News
HelpExpand Help
Advanced search

In Basket
  Journal Article   Journal Article
 

ID187554
Title ProperMoral foundations of restraint
Other Title InformationPartisanship, military training, and norms of civilian protection
LanguageENG
AuthorMonten, Jonathan ;  Bell, Andrew M ;  Gift, Thomas ;  Andrew M Bell
Summary / Abstract (Note)How does partisan identification shape the attitudes of US military officers toward the protection of civilians in war? Drawing on unique cross-cohort surveys of soon-to-be commissioned officers in 12 Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) training battalions, we find that Democratic-leaning cadets generally prioritize norms of civilian protection more than Republican-leaning cadets when confronted with competing values of military advantage and force protection as part of a ‘combatant’s trilemma’. This gap remains partially resilient after sustained exposure to military training and socialization, including in the norms of restraint embodied by principles of combat ethics and the law of war. We attribute these partisan differences to insights from Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), which suggests that the moral values of Democrats and Republicans guide their views toward the individual use of force in combat. Our findings have important implications for comprehending the impact of political ideology and military training and socialization on attitudes regarding restraint toward civilians in war. Given the widely recognized conservative composition of the US military’s membership, these findings may help to further inform understanding of US military operations and the underlying causes of US adherence to – or violation of – the laws of armed conflict.
`In' analytical NoteJournal of Peace Research Vol. 59, No.5; Sep 2022: p.694-709
Journal SourceJournal of Peace Research Vol: 59 No 5
Key WordsConflict ;  Ethics ;  Socialization ;  Norms ;  Training ;  Law of War ;  Surveys ;  Partisanship ;  US Military ;  ROTC


 
 
Media / Other Links  Full Text