Gabriel Ben-Dor

I versus We Collective and Individual Factors of Reserve Service Motivation during War and Peace

This study examines conditions of peace and war to find whether the “rally `round the flag” effect is indeed attributed to rising levels of social collectivism. Reserve service motivation in peacetime and wartime was compared among 1,004 Israeli reservists. Levels of motivation and the factors that affect them were examined during the optimism of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (February 2000) and about a year and a half into the second Intifada (October 2000). Findings suggest that motivation to serve in wartime is indeed higher than in peacetime. However, they also suggest that similar factors predict motivation in both times, although their relative impact is altered by the situation. Reservists were more likely to be motivated by individual rather than collective incentives (in both peacetime and wartime situations), thus suggesting that “rally `round the flag” occurrences are not necessarily reflective of the social cohesion and collective reasoning.

Institutionalization and Political Development: A Conceptual and Theoretical Analysis

In recent years, institutionalization has become one of the key concepts in comparative politics in general, and in the study of political development in particular. This elegant and almost geometrically tidy theory of political order best articulated by Huntington has been acclaimed as a major new school, one that will be able perhaps to narrow what La Palombara called the ‘widening chasm’ between ‘macrotheories and microapplications in comparative politics’. Indeed, Huntington in his book attempted to apply his theoretical tenets to the analysis of such important phenomena as military intervention in politics, corruption and violence, all this via the usage of a few major variables. In the notoriously slippery field of theorizing in comparative politics, this constituted a welcome influx of fresh air. No wonder, then, that Huntingtons theory and concepts have been widely prevalent and frequently referred to—again a relative innovation in the easy-come-easy-go world of theories in the study of political development.

The uniqueness of Islamic fundamentalism

This article explores the notion of fundamentalism, and anchors it in the concepts of extremism, radicalism and scripturalism. It argues that it is possible to study the phenomenon of fundamentalism within the paradigms of rationalism that prevail in modern social science. Furthermore, while all fundamentalist movements share certain characteristics, Islamic fundamentalism differs from other fundamentalist movements in many substantial ways, including political space, the ability to penetrate inter‐state boundaries, Islam as a protest movement, the total adherence of believers to a set of behavioral tenets, the difficulty of separating state from religion, a strong orientation to things collective, Islamic legitimacy of states, the commandment of jihad and the immediacy of faith in the life of believers. In the light of all this, Islamic countries tend to be rather vulnerable to waves of fundamentalism, which, however, ebb and flow in response to concrete social, political and economic conditions in the r...

Under the Threat of Terrorism: A Reassessment of the Factors Influencing the Motivation to Serve in the Israeli Reserves

Discussion of the various aspects of relations between the military and society in Israel has been widespread in social and political science research for many years. The changing character of these relations and, in particular, the weakening of the nation’s army reserve, has attracted special attention recently. The developments of the last twenty years have raised a number of questions, among them vital issues at the heart of Israel’s national security perceptions. A crucial postulate is that, because of the country’s small population, the Israeli military cannot continually maintain its full capacity. Thus, in the case of emergency or war, a small conscript and professional army is expected to defend the front lines and hold back an enemy advance for the time needed (about 48 hours) to deploy the remaining (hundreds of thousands of) reserve soldiers constituting the main force of the military. This concept, which has proven efficient throughout Israel’s military conflicts, is now a matter of concern due to the growing number of citizens no longer taking part in reserve service. Therefore, the very essence of Israel’s security concept is under investigation here. Does Israel still have a large enough reserve army for the actual defence of its borders in times of emergency? In addition, what are the factors which affect the size of this force? The outbreak of terror during the Al-Aqsa Intifada since 2000 has forced Israel to issue immediate draft orders for the first time in almost two decades. Although the threat of terror is in itself considered an important contributor in a soldier’s motivation, many of the reservists called up experienced such orders for the first time in their military careers. This has enabled the testing of established notions under circumstances which have not existed for two decades. This study looks into the factors which explain