Uzi Ben-Shalom

Elements of unacceptable risk taking in combat units: An exercise in offender profiling.

The problem that we address in this study is concerned with profiling the antisocial risk taker, who either admits to risky behaviour and/or implies such behaviour, solely through anonymous self report. Specifically, we were interested in profiling those military conscripts who engage in weapon-related risky behaviours. To this end, we constructed a risk-taking questionnaire, assessing violations of military conduct, and tapping various target risk-taking activities (i.e., weapon-related risk taking). In attempting to draw a personality profile of a weapon-related risk taker, we assumed that the offender would probably score high on both psychoticism (P) and neuroticism (N), though not necessarily high on extraversion (E), and thus would conform to some current ideas on the relationship between personality and criminality. We also viewed the offender using a sensation-seeking lens, assuming that the offender, serving in a combat unit, would score high on thrill and adventure seeking, but more importantly, would also score high on both disinhibition and boredom susceptibility, both of which would predispose him to an impulsive, unsocialized form of sensation seeking. In the data analysis, we tried to mesh both patterns of risk taking and antisocial predispositions in order to achieve some degree of coherence. Our results indicate that target offenders seem to score high on P and low on the Eysenckian Lie Scale (L).

Coping Styles and Combat Motivation During Operations An IDF Case Study

The characteristic challenges of combat lead military personnel to develop adaptive coping styles that are different from coping styles used in routine life. This contention is explored using data collected from Israel Defense Forces conscript and reserve soldiers during intense military operations. The results of this study support this claim, in particular concerning faith. Coping styles were also correlated with combat motivations and measures of positive and negative emotions. It seems that a well-adapted soldier may use unique coping styles that, although perhaps not understood by outsiders, can contribute to his capacity to carry out his undertakings. A better understanding of such a state of mind should prove valuable for military leaders and religious experts.

Dimensions of operational stress and forms of unacceptable risk-taking with small arms.

This research studied the association between dimensions of operational stress, forms of risk-taking with small arms, and possible mediators. Operational threat and negative affect were predictors, unauthorized preparedness and risky games were dependent variables, and safety climate and personality profile from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire—Revised Short Form were mediators. The participants were 461 compulsory service soldiers in 31 companies. The results revealed that operational threat is related to unauthorized preparedness, and positive–negative affect is related to risky games. Safety climate mediated risky games only. Unauthorized preparedness and risky games were influenced by the interaction of Psychoticism and the Lie scale from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire—Revised Short Form.

‘A Time of War’: contextual and organisational dimensions in the construction of combat motivation in the IDF

ABSTRACT This paper explores the construction of combat motivation in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), arguing that although Israeli society at large is in a ‘Post Heroic’ era, the ‘Heroic Spirit’ is revealed during emergencies. A total of 1535 questionnaires were administered among combat soldiers during large-scale operations fought during national emergency and during small-scale routine operations. The results reveal differences in the construction of combat motivation typical for emergency vs. routine, as well as for reserves vs. regular units. These results indicate that the Post Heroic era is a condition that could be shifted according to cultural, organisational and individual determinants. This paper discusses the roots of these constructions and their implications on the theory of combat motivation and combat experience.

Military Leadership in Heroic and Post-heroic Conditions

The chapter presents key dimensions of military leadership, as they exist in contemporary military sociological literature. It presents the dichotomy between the Heroic and the Post-Heroic models of military leadership. Later, it will propose a way to bridge the gap between heroic and post-heroic schools of thought relating military leadership. That, by offering to include skills and expertise in the Military Leadership Tool-Box, which originally belong to the school of cultural studies and Sociology of Discourse and most recently been applied to the Sociology of Management. These are crucial to the commanders and leaders in shifting from heroic to post-heroic conditions—what we mark as the most important challenge of contemporary military leadership.

Introduction: Israel’s post-heroic condition

The concept of ‘new way of war’1 explains peculiarities in the conduct of military operations by Western militaries in the last decades. Sociological dimensions in this new approach are apparent in terms as ‘risk avoidance’, ‘tolerance for casualties’ and ‘sacrifice’. Israel’s strategic realities are different from countries who adhere to such a new way of war. Nevertheless it changed its preferred way of war accordingly. Historically, Israel has an unofficial principle of strategic thinking: ‘Deterrence’, ‘Early Warning’ and ‘Decision’. In recent years, it has added the fourth principle of ‘Defence’, relinquishing its preference for risk taking in order to achieve swift decisions, preferably on the terrain of the antagonist, while tolerating the loss of life. The process that led to the current Israeli preference was gradual and scholars have noted it in recent decades.2 Kober has summarised this process as ‘The post-heroic state of mind has developed against the backdrop of the West’s typical casualty aversion’.3 And in the Israeli case he explained this trend, which he identified as early as the late 1970s, due to the lack of existential threats, typical of low-intensity conflict (LIC) scenarios facilitated by Israel’s technological superiority. He also stated that social processes as different perspectives concerning loss of life between social groups are an intriguing source for explanation of the new ‘Israeli way of war’.4 Indeed, scholars in Israel were curious about the Israel Defense Forces avoidance of risks and dislike of casualties5 and their origins in the peculiar dynamics between the military and social powers in the Israeli civil society.6 The aim of the current collection of articles is to add ideas about the social dimensions of the Israeli post-heroic condition. The term ‘Condition’ is of added value as the post-heroic state is not a formal doctrine but rather a state of mind, and as such heroic and post-heroic stances are not constant and could co-exist or negate one another.7 Understanding the social complexities in the current Israeli post-heroic mind is of importance as a source of understanding the processes that moved other Western militaries toward risk aversion.

Scripts of service culture and joint operations of air and ground forces: an IDF case study

Abstract The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) face continuing challenges concerning joint operations of military services (e.g. air and ground forces) since, as in other militaries, the existence of separate service cultures creates operational difficulties. This article analyses in-depth interviews with commanders from the IDF’s air and ground forces. Its findings reinforce the ‘polarisation assumption’ of ‘us’ (the in-group) and ‘them’ (the out-group) that challenges successful cooperation, reflecting differences in the scripts of expectations and modes of action underlying perceptions of successful joint operations. These scripts create assumptions that are manifestations of a deep-rooted service culture. Such assumptions also have an effect on combat motivation as certain scenarios lead towards greater risk-taking in concrete operational situations. Cooperation between the Israeli Air Force and Special Forces is far more successful and smooth. The analysis of the success of joint operations can aid the armed forces in bridging differences and improving cooperation.

The Role of Internal Locus of Control in Coping With Anticipatory and Postevent Stress Among IDF Soldiers

The study aimed to determine whether internal locus of control (ILOC) predicts longitudinal psychological reactions to a stressful event. The research began two months prior to the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and lasted 10 months. ILOC and adjustment were assessed prior to the event (T1), immediately after the event (T2), and eight months after the event (T3), with 1,623, 216, and 156 participants completing questionnaires at each time, respectively. Participants with low T1 ILOC had more negative views and demonstrated low adjustment to the operation at T1 and T2 and reported lower levels of well-being at T3 than did individuals with high ILOC. T1 ILOC was correlated to positive and negative views at T2. Sense of threat, unit cohesion, and preparedness mediated some of this correlation.