CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY DAREN BOWYER JUST WAR DOCTRINE

In the case of US soldiers in Iraq, the study found that most had joined the Army for
traditional reasons (money for college, experience and excitement before looking for a
regular job, following family footsteps) with just a very few having been motivated by
the events of 11 Sep 2001. Performance in conflict was most heavily influenced, as
Marshall and Kellett would have expected, by small group cohesion and it was social
rather than task cohesion that had the greatest influence: ‘(The) desire to contribute to
the unit mission comes not from a commitment to the mission, but a social compact
with the members of the primary group.’ 247
In contrast to earlier studies of combat motivation of US servicemen in World War
Two, Korea and Vietnam, Wong et al found that, particularly once the outcome of the
2003 Iraq war was certain, US servicemen of that conflict expressed themselves highly
motivated by idealistic issues, particularly focussed on liberating the Iraqi people,
bringing democracy to the region and ending an oppressive regime (but not, perhaps
surprisingly, nationalistic or national security issues). 248 The study concludes that:
(b)ecause our soldiers trust the Army as an institution, they now look to the Army to
provide the moral direction for war. As this study has shown, soldiers still fight for
each other. In a professional army, however, soldiers are also sophisticated enough to
grasp the moral reasons for fighting. 249 Most recent British doctrine also recognizes this
and identifies belief in cause as an element in developing and maintaining unit
cohesion, thus creating an indirect link between moral issues and combat effectiveness:
‘Troops who have moral cohesion stick together: they continue to fight despite
adversity and local reverse. It results from a combination of several factors, including
high morale, good leadership, esprit de corps and belief in the cause at stake.’
(Emphasis added). 250
If the above survey of combat motivation literature reveals no conclusive direct link
between motivation and justification of cause (or morality of conduct), it does strongly
suggest that ideology is at least a motivational factor, and the more so for modern
professional armies whose soldiers are sufficiently well educated to be engaged by the
issues. Perhaps most important when considering the importance of justification at the
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