Military Heroism in a Post-Heroic Era

This book explores the variety of forms that individual heroism and sacrifice can take in the context of contemporary military conflicts. It addresses three key questions: How has an enduring ideal of heroism been transformed by the nature of modern warfare? Are we now witnessing the emergence of new forms of exemplary military behavior? And, have new ideals of heroism (and by association, sacrifice or bravery) been added to older forms in the recent past? The book advocates viewing the concept of military heroism as a moral category, in which its theoretical definition and empirical practice reflect those factors that are seen as being vital for society itself. The key theoretical and topical challenges addressed in the respective chapters focus on how ideas of heroism become entwined with issues of individualization (bolstered by the cultural assumptions of neo-Liberalism), the spread of the human rights discourse, and the judicialization, marketization and mediatization of armed forces. The book was written by experts on military studies, including many who are currently active military personnel. It includes contributions from a variety of disciplines, e.g. anthropology, sociology, psychology, and political science.

Uzi Ben-Shalom is a sociologist and psychologist of the military and is presently Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Ariel University. He is also current Chair of the Israel Association for Civil-Military Relations. He is a lieutenant-colonel in the IDF and has served over twenty years in the Intelligence Corps and the Behavioral Sciences Center of the military. He has published over ninety publications dealing with the military and security. His research is focused on social cohesion, leadership, and human resources in security related organization.René Moelker (Rotterdam, 1960) is associate professor of sociology at the Royal Netherlands Military Academy. He holds a Ph.D. from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. His work in military sociology concentrates on the sociology of military families, military technology, military profession, the military sociology of Norbert Elias, military education, conflict in Chechnya and media, He is the author of several books on the above mentioned topics and was awarded the Morris Janowitz Award.Nehemia Stern is a lecturer in sociology and anthropology in Ariel University. He received his PhD from the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University in 2014. His research now focuses on the anthropology of the military, where he has published several articles on everyday military experiences.Eyal Ben-Ari was a professor of sociology and anthropology at the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem and currently Senior Fellow in the Jerusalem Institutefor Security and Strategy. He has carried out work in Israel, Japan, Singapore,Taiwan and Hong Kong. He has published twenty-five authored and edited booksmostly about the armed forces but also about early childhood education andwhite-collar communities in Japan, the social contexts of creativity, or thespread of Japanese popular culture around the world.