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The Political Legacies of Combat: Attitudes Toward War and Peace Among Israeli Ex-Combatants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Guy Grossman ,
Devorah Manekin  and
Dan Miodownik
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Abstract

Recent research has highlighted combat's positive effects for political behavior, but it is unclear whether they extend to attitudes toward the conflict itself. We exploit the assignment of health rankings determining combat eligibility in the Israel Defense Forces to examine the effect of combat exposure on support for peaceful conflict resolution. Given the centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to global affairs, and its apparent intractability, the political consequences of combat become all the more pressing. We find that exposure to combat hardens attitudes toward the rival and reduces support for negotiation and compromise. Importantly, these attitudes translate into voting behavior: combatants are likely to vote for more hawkish parties. These findings call for caution in emphasizing the benign effects of combat and underscore the importance of reintegrating combatants during the transition from conflict to peace.

Type
Research Note
Information
International Organization , Volume 69 , Issue 4 , Fall 2015 , pp. 981 - 1009
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2015 

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