Abstract
In the past two decades several scholars argued that western societies have entered a post-heroic age. According to this view, the social contract between the modern nation-state and its citizens has been eroded. This social contract envisaged that citizens had to be willing to tolerate sacrifices in return for popular sovereignty, and the first among these sacrifices was the death of their sons on the battlefield.
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Notes
Edward N. Luttwak, ‘Toward Post-Heroic Warfare’, Foreign Affairs, vol. 74/3 (1995): 109–22.
Christopher Coker, Waging War without Warriors? The Changing Culture of Military Conflict (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2002).
Christopher Coker, The Warrior Ethos: Military Culture and the War on Terror (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 102.
Victor Turner, ‘Sacrifice as Quintessential Process, Prophylaxis or Abandonment?’, History of Religions, vol. 16/3 (1977): 200–1.
Cf. Assaf Moghadam, ‘Palestinian Suicide Tenorism in the Second Intifada: Motivations and Organizational Aspects’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, vol. 26/2 (2003): 77.
Peter W. Singer, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21 st Century (New York: Penguin, 2009).
Simon Wessely, ‘Twentieth-Century Theories on Combat Motivation’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol.41/2 (2006): 278–9.
Cf. Gerald F. Iinderman, Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War (New York: Free Press, 1987).
Cf. Lewis Coser, The Functions of Social Conflict (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1956).
Anthony King, ‘The Afghan War and “Post-Modern” Memory: Commemoration and the Dead of Helmand’, British Journal of Sociology, vol. 61/1 (2010): 1–25.
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© 2014 Sibylle Scheipers
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Scheipers, S. (2014). Introduction: Toward Post-Heroic Warfare?. In: Scheipers, S. (eds) Heroism and the Changing Character of War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137362537_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137362537_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-47270-3
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