Civilians into warriors: Mechanisms of mobilization in US Army recruitment and training

Abstract

This paper examines US Army recruitment and training as a form of mobilization with many parallels to political radicalization of non-state groups, including groups that turn to terrorism. Military and terrorist organizations are different in many important respects. They are, however, alike in their need to convert civilians into warriors ready to make sacrifices for a group cause. Seven mechanisms of mobilization are identified as contributing to the preparation for sacrifice that occurs for both terrorists and US Army recruits: political grievance; love of individual comrades; extremity shift in likeminded groups; extreme cohesion under isolation and threat; mass radicalization by external threat; dehumanizing the enemy as having a bad essence; and valorizing of self-sacrifice and martyrdom. Contrasting army recruits with terrorist recruits suggests that the military faces and surmounts a more difficult challenge in socializing recruits for self-sacrifice.

Keywords:

• mobilization
• military recruitment
• military training
• radicalization
• terrorism