New book: Why We Fight by Mike Martin

[davidbfpo]

The book 'Why We Fight' is by a British veteran of Afghanistan, now @ Kings War Studies as a Research Fellow and the author of 'An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict'. So he refers to his talking to Afghan soldiers, alongside his own experiences to argue it is basically status and belonging to a cohesive social group.

The publishers description:

Why are we willing to die for our countries? How can ideology persuade someone to blow themselves up? When we go to war, morality, religion and ideology often take the blame. But Mike Martin boldly argues that the opposite is true: rather than driving violence, these things help to reduce it. While we resort to ideas and values to justify or interpret warfare, something else is really propelling us towards conflict: our subconscious desires, shaped by millions of years of evolution. Why We Fight will change the way we think about both violence and ourselves.

There's also a one minute video by the author.
Link:https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book...eid=80d42c7c0a

The Guardian has a fourteen minute podcast, with the author and two academics:

Experts have been fighting about fighting throughout the ages. While theories have emerged to explain why we fight, there isn’t a consensus in the research. In general, theories of war miss the mark for some. So why do we fight? And what can science tell us?

Link:https://www.theguardian.com/science/...weekly-podcast

I have asked a USMC Afghan veteran to do a book review (if the publisher is willing). It is on Amazon US & UK, the later has three five star reviews and Frank Ledwidge ends his with:

This is an excellent book, and absolutely essential for anyone who wants to know what makes us go to war, and what can hold us back.

There is an existing, closed thread 'How soldiers deal with the job of killing' into which this thread maybe folded one day. See:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...job-of-killing