Why Soldiers Don’t Fight

Abstract

This chapter considers the different theories that have been advanced over the last century to explain combat motivation and combat demotivation (a term used here to cover a range of conditions including but not restricted to combat breakdown, post-traumatic stress disorder and so on), all of which have in common that they are associated with men ceasing to fight.¹ The chapter looks specifically at what makes men fight, because nearly all the literature for the last hundred years is about men. As a way of getting at such a vast and complex subject, the chapter presents three vignettes, each a moment in time, that illustrate the changing views of combat demotivation over the last century.