Why do they serve? Changes and differences in motives of Danish soldiers deployed to peace-keeping and peace-enforcing missions

This paper investigates what motivates young people to volunteer for peace-keeping or peace-enforcing missions and how their motives change between pre- and post-deployment. Data include information about social and military background, and motives for more than 600 soldiers, 444 of whom answered the survey both before and after deployment. Soldiers are deployed to different missions under the same circumstances. To conceptualize motives among soldiers, we use factor analysis and find three factors: challenge, self-benefit, and fidelity. Challenge represents an occupational orientation; fidelity, an institutional orientation; and self-benefit, a desire for adventure. Exploiting the within-subject design of our data, we find that pre- and post-deployment motives vary significantly according to the type of mission and soldiers’ previous experiences (first-timers or experienced soldiers). Our results suggest that after the mission, peace-keepers are generally more disappointed than peace-enforcers. Our results also show that self-benefit motives are important for younger soldiers with only a high school education, and that this group usually serves as peace-enforcers during their gap year.     

An Exploratory Study of the Decision to Refrain from Killing in the Accounts of Military and Police Personnel

Although previous studies have examined killing as an outcome-oriented measure, few have explored non-killing as a socially organized process. Using letters written by soldiers, police officers, and security professionals found in the magazine Soldier of Fortune, this study examines cases in which they refrain from killing their opponents. Our results indicate that refrained killings by these actors are socially organized in ways that are shaped by situational, environmental, technological, administrative, and moral factors. In addition, it was found that when police officers and soldiers realized the humanity of their opponents, they employed alternative methods to subdue or control without using lethal force, despite situational and legal justifications for doing so. Implications for the sociology, psychology, and ethics of killing – or not killing – are discussed.     

运用心理学相关理论培育军人核心价值观

培育军人核心价值观,是当前部队思想政治教育的重中之重,其培育途径尤为重要,笔者认为,可以通过培养与激发官兵亲社会行为,来推动与促进军人核心价值观的培育。运用心理学的相关理论,促进亲社会行为的概念与特征、亲社会行为与军人核心价值观的有机结合,培育军人核心价值观。     

关于军人核心价值观教育方法论的哲学思考

军人核心价值观教育是军队思想政治教育工作的重要组成部分,只有采用正确的教育方法才能取得成效。文章从马克思价值学说的基本观点出发,探讨了军人核心价值观教育的哲学方法论问题,总结和归纳出最具有普遍性的规律,以期增强当代革命军人核心价值观教育的实效性。     

把以人为本作为重要的建军治军理念

军队落实科学发展观,尤其是把以人为本作为建军治军的重要理念,就必须做到在部队建设中认识人、尊重人、依靠人、服务人、发展人。做到深知兵,坚持从群众中来、到群众中去的工作路线,切实维护好广大官兵的合法权益、切身利益,尊重官兵的身心发展规律,促进官兵的全面发展。     

网络中心式空战仿真研究

将网络中心战思想引入空战仿真研究,提出基于复杂适应系统理论的网络中心式空战模型.对网络中心式空战子模型进行设计,使空战单元根据对局部环境的感知所获取的态势信息来调整自身个性,调整规则依据约束变量的设定和决策元规则.通过仿真实验着重考察了具有自适应性的空战单元在空战对抗中的作战表现,实验结果初步验证了其战斗效能优势.     

军人逆商教育的内涵意义及实施途径

开展以提高军人个体素质和提高部队战斗力为目标的军人逆商教育,应当从增强教育者素质、激发官兵积极性和主动性入手,形成全方位多角度的逆商教育体系,并要紧紧抓住党的领导和环境营造等几个重点问题,确保军人逆商教育的成效。