Download or read book Endurance and War written by Jasen J. Castillo and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-09 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars and military practitioners alike have long sought to understand why some country's militaries fight hard when facing defeat while others collapse. In Endurance and War, Jasen Castillo presents a new unifying theory—cohesion theory—to explain why national militaries differ in their staying power. His argument builds on insights from the literatures on group solidarity in general and military effectiveness in particular, which argue that the stronger the ties binding together individuals in a group of any kind, the higher the degree of cohesion that a group will exhibit when taking collective action, including fighting in war. Specifically, he argues that two types of ties determine the cohesion, and therefore the resilience, of a nation's armed forces during war: the degree of control a regime holds over its citizens and the amount of autonomy the armed forces possess to focus on training for warfighting. Understanding why armed forces differ in their cohesion should help U.S. military planners better assess the military capabilities of potential adversaries, like Iran and North Korea. For scholars of international politics, cohesion theory can help provide insights into how countries create military power and how they win wars.

Download or read book Lessons in Unit Cohesion written by Michael R. Kearnes and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book From One Leader to Another written by Combat Studies Institute Press and published by Military Bookshop. This book was released on 2013-05 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is a collection of observations, insights, and advice from over 50 serving and retired Senior Non-Commissioned Officers. These experienced Army leaders have provided for the reader, outstanding mentorship on leadership skills, tasks, and responsibilities relevant to our Army today. There is much wisdom and advice "from one leader to another" in the following pages.

Download or read book Cohesion the Human Element in Combat written by William D. Henderson and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses The Significance of Military Cohesion, Measuring Military Power, Why Soldiers Fight, Characteristics of a Cohesive Army, Organizational Characteristics, Small Group and Unit Characteristics, and Leadership Characteristics. The Author Compares Cohesion in the North Vietnamese, US, Soviet, and Israeli Armies and Measures Societal Group Effects on Cohesion. Leadership in Cohesive Units is also very important.

Download or read book Connected Soldiers written by Spencer John Spencer and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2022-07 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Spencer was a new second lieutenant in 2003 when he parachuted into Iraq leading a platoon of infantry soldiers into battle. During that combat tour he learned how important unit cohesion was to surviving a war, both physically and mentally. He observed that this cohesion developed as the soldiers experienced the horrors of combat as a group, spending their downtime together and processing their shared experiences. When Spencer returned to Iraq five years later to take command of a troubled company, he found that his lessons on how to build unit cohesion were no longer as applicable. Rather than bonding and processing trauma as a group, soldiers now spent their downtime separately, on computers communicating with family back home. Spencer came to see the internet as a threat to unit cohesion, but when he returned home and his wife was deployed, the internet connected him and his children to his wife on a daily basis. In Connected Soldiers Spencer delivers lessons learned about effective methods for building teams in a way that overcomes the distractions of home and the outside world, without reducing the benefits gained from connections to family.

Download or read book Military Life written by Thomas W. Britt and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2005-12-30 with total page 1071 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With global commitments and combat duty, our armed forces face life-threatening challenges on a daily basis. However, less visible threats also impact the mental health of our military men and women. Experts examine challenges on the battlefield, such as women coming to terms with life after being prisoners of war, or soldiers dealing with mistakenly killing civilians. But life in the armed forces presents less dramatic, daily challenges. Away from the front lines, soldiers have to raise their families, sometimes as single parents. Children have to learn what it's like to be in a military family, and to make sense of war. Gay or lesbian officers cope with a don't ask, don't tell policy. An unprecedented range of contributors—military officers, medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and professors—take us onto the bases and the battlefields and inside the minds of military personnel who face far greater challenges than most of us ever see in the headlines. These volumes also highlight factors that make members of the military resilient and stable, as well as programs and practices that can ease the psychological burdens of military personnel, families, and children. Readers can better understand how society views our military and military operations, and how each one of us can play a role in supporting our armed forces.

Download or read book Tactical Display for Soldiers written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1997-01-17 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the human factors issues associated with the development, testing, and implementation of helmet-mounted display technology in the 21st Century Land Warrior System. Because the framework of analysis is soldier performance with the system in the full range of environments and missions, the book discusses both the military context and the characteristics of the infantry soldiers who will use the system. The major issues covered include the positive and negative effects of such a display on the local and global situation awareness of the individual soldier, an analysis of the visual and psychomotor factors associated with each design feature, design considerations for auditory displays, and physical sources of stress and the implications of the display for affecting the soldier's workload. The book proposes an innovative approach to research and testing based on a three-stage strategy that begins in the laboratory, moves to controlled field studies, and culminates in operational testing.

Download or read book Combat Motivation written by A. Kellett and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What men will fight for seems to be worth looking into," H. L. Mencken noted shortly after the close of the First World War. Prior to that war, although many military commanders and theorists had throughout history shown an aptitude for devising maxims concerning esprit de corps, fighting spirit, morale, and the like, military organizations had rarely sought either to understand or to promote combat motivation. For example, an officer who graduated from the Royal Military College (Sandhurst) at the end of the nineteenth century later commented that the art of leadership was utterly neglected (Charlton 1931, p. 48), while General Wavell recalled that during his course at the British Staff College at Camberley (1909-1 0) insufficient stress was laid "on the factor of morale, or how to induce it and maintain it'' (quoted in Connell1964, p. 63). The First World War forced commanders and staffs to take account of psychological factors and to anticipate wideJy varied responses to the combat environment because, unlike most previous wars, it was not fought by relatively small and homogeneous armies of regulars and trained reservists. The mobilization by the belligerents of about 65 million men (many of whom were enrolled under duress), the evidence of fairly widespread psychiatric breakdown, and the postwar disillusion (- xiii xiv PREFACE emplified in books like C. E. Montague's Disenchantment, published in 1922) all tended to dispel assumptions and to provoke questions about mo tivation and morale.

Download or read book Will to Fight written by Ben Connable and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report defines and describes will to fight and provides a model of unit will to fight that can be applied to ground combat units of any scale. It also provides a theoretical basis for adding will to fight to military war gaming.

Download or read book Unit Cohesion and Warfare in the Ancient World written by Joshua R. Hall and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book explores unit cohesion in ancient armies, and how this contributed to the making of war in the Mediterranean world. It takes a varied approach to the subject, from looking at individual groups within larger armies to juxtaposing vertical and horizontal types of cohesion, providing a more detailed understanding of how groups were kept together. Within the broader definition of 'unit cohesion', this volume approaches more specific aspects of military cohesion in the ancient Mediterranean world including how individual soldiers commit to one another; how armies and units are maintained through hierarchy and the 'chain of command'; and social cohesion, in which social activities and aspects of social power help bind an army or unit together. Examples from across the ancient Mediterranean are explored in this volume, from Classical Greece to Late Antiquity, with topics such as how armies and units cohere during the sacking of cities, Roman standards as a focus of religious cohesion, and how the multi-ethnic mercenary armies of Carthage cohered. Modern approaches to social cohesion are deployed throughout, and these essays serve as an important complement to existing literature on unit cohesion more generally. Unit Cohesion and Warfare in the Ancient World is of interest to students and scholars of ancient warfare, military history and military studies, as well as those working on the ancient Mediterranean world more broadly"--

Download or read book Crisis in Command written by Richard A. Gabriel and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1978 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crisis in Command, written in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, details the mismanagement of the US Army's leadership. Former soldiers Richard A. Gabriel and Paul L. Savage provide documented evidence that the military forces of the United States are ill-prepared for war, having been weakened by officer-corps members who have abandoned honor and integrity to further their individual careers.

Download or read book Cohesion the Human Element in Combat written by Darryl Henderson and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2012-07-18 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In assessing who wins wars and why, it is easy to over weigh any one factor and neglect others. road factors such as objectives and strategies, weapons and materials, technology, numbers of soldiers, and the human element muss all be considered when deciding who wins and why.

Download or read book Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2019-10-25 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. military has been continuously engaged in foreign conflicts for over two decades. The strains that these deployments, the associated increases in operational tempo, and the general challenges of military life affect not only service members but also the people who depend on them and who support them as they support the nation â€" their families. Family members provide support to service members while they serve or when they have difficulties; family problems can interfere with the ability of service members to deploy or remain in theater; and family members are central influences on whether members continue to serve. In addition, rising family diversity and complexity will likely increase the difficulty of creating military policies, programs and practices that adequately support families in the performance of military duties. Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society examines the challenges and opportunities facing military families and what is known about effective strategies for supporting and protecting military children and families, as well as lessons to be learned from these experiences. This report offers recommendations regarding what is needed to strengthen the support system for military families.

Download or read book The 71F Advantage written by National Defense University Press and published by NDU Press. This book was released on 2010-09 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes a foreword by Major General David A. Rubenstein. From the editor: "71F, or "71 Foxtrot," is the AOC (area of concentration) code assigned by the U.S. Army to the specialty of Research Psychology. Qualifying as an Army research psychologist requires, first of all, a Ph.D. from a research (not clinical) intensive graduate psychology program. Due to their advanced education, research psychologists receive a direct commission as Army officers in the Medical Service Corps at the rank of captain. In terms of numbers, the 71F AOC is a small one, with only 25 to 30 officers serving in any given year. However, the 71F impact is much bigger than this small cadre suggests. Army research psychologists apply their extensive training and expertise in the science of psychology and social behavior toward understanding, preserving, and enhancing the health, well being, morale, and performance of Soldiers and military families. As is clear throughout the pages of this book, they do this in many ways and in many areas, but always with a scientific approach. This is the 71F advantage: applying the science of psychology to understand the human dimension, and developing programs, policies, and products to benefit the person in military operations. This book grew out of the April 2008 biennial conference of U.S. Army Research Psychologists, held in Bethesda, Maryland. This meeting was to be my last as Consultant to the Surgeon General for Research Psychology, and I thought it would be a good idea to publish proceedings, which had not been done before. As Consultant, I'd often wished for such a document to help explain to people what it is that Army Research Psychologists "do for a living." In addition to our core group of 71Fs, at the Bethesda 2008 meeting we had several brand-new members, and a number of distinguished retirees, the "grey-beards" of the 71F clan. Together with longtime 71F colleagues Ross Pastel and Mark Vaitkus, I also saw an unusual opportunity to capture some of the history of the Army Research Psychology specialty while providing a representative sample of current 71F research and activities. It seemed to us especially important to do this at a time when the operational demands on the Army and the total force were reaching unprecedented levels, with no sign of easing, and with the Army in turn relying more heavily on research psychology to inform its programs for protecting the health, well being, and performance of Soldiers and their families."

Download or read book New Opportunities for Military Women written by Margaret C. Harrell and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 1997 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The role of women in the military has steadily been increasing since the early 1970s. The most recent changes occurred between 1992 and 1994, when both legislative and policy changes expanded opportunities for women. Congress has taken a keen interest in this process, and the House report for the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 included as a special interest item a direction to the Secretary of Defense to evaluate the performance of the military services in integrating women into occupations previously closed to them. The report also asked for an assessment of the effects of this integration on readiness and morale. The study has three components. The first determines how each service implemented the guidance to open new skills and organizations to women. Each service interpreted the guidance differently, and it is important to understand those interpretations before assessing the progress in implementing the congressional guidance. The second component assesses the progress of what we refer to as gender integration. In this component, we determined the extent to which the services carried out their interpretations of the congressional direction. The third component assesses the effects of gender integration on the readiness, cohesion, and morale of units. To complete the third component, we relied on a series of visits to military units. We visited 14 units, chosen to provide the broadest possible view of the effects of the policy changes. We used three techniques during field visits to gather information about gender issues and their effects on readiness, cohesion, and morale. We interviewed commanders and other senior leaders, conducted a series of focus groups with unit personnel, and administered a survey to focus-group participants and other unit personnel.

Download or read book Why They Fight written by Leonard Wong and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cohesion written by William Darryl Henderson and published by . This book was released on 2002-12-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the perils for military planners in a high-tech world is to be taken in by the destructiveness of modern weapons and to give in to the currently popular theory that modern war will last for days or weeks rather than months or years -- in short, to envision a world where technologies, not people, dominate war. We can ill afford to dismiss the human element in combat. The stakes are far too great. Colonel William Darryl Henderson, US Army, maintains that we cannot expect tactical situations in future fields of battle to be devoid of the human factor. Most recently, for example, Iraq's war with Iran was potentially a high-tech and swift war. That war is entering its fourth year and has cost, to date, 900,000 lives. Cohesion-mutual beliefs and needs that cause people to act as a collective whole -- has so far played a more significant role in the Iran-Iraq war than all the sophisticated weapons on either side. Does American society produce the type of soldier who would, under stress, suppress his individuality and act for the mutual good of the group? In the post-Vietnam, all-volunteer force environment, the kind of American citizen attracted to military service -- the qualities he carries from society and what qualities the military organization is able to impart to him -- must be a matter for serious thought and planning. Colonel Henderson's work is a step in that direction. Richard D. LawrenceLieutenant General, United States ArmyPresident, National Defense University