Abstract
This article investigates what motivates combatants to fight in non-conventional armed organizations. Drawing on interviews with ex-combatants from the Army of the Serbian Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the article compares the role of nationalist ideology, coercive organizational structures, and small group solidarity in these two organizations. Our analysis indicates that coercion played a limited role in both armed forces: in the VRS coercion was relevant mostly in the recruitment phase, while in the IRA its direct impact was only discernible during armed operations. We also find that although both organizations are seen as being highly motivated by nationalist ideas, the picture is much more complex and nationalism is less present than expected. The study demonstrates that nationalism played a relatively marginal role in combatants’ motivation to fight. Instead our research indicates that individualist motivations, small group solidarity, and local networks dominate.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Neither of these forces was the Army of a legitimately constituted State and the terms “soldier” and “combatant” are used to indicate membership of a hierarchically organized military formation rather than to suggest the legitimacy of these forces or their conformity with the rules of warfare.
This is not to say that some members of these military organizations were not in part motivated by other material incentives including the protection of their homes or in some instances the opportunist pillaging of abandoned goods (see Bougarel 2006, p. 481).
Irish Times, 22 May 2014, “PSNI to seek entire Boston College tape archive.”
Handbook for Volunteers of the Irish Republican Army: Notes on Guerilla Warfare (1956) IRA General Headquarters, Dublin. https://archive.org/stream/IRA_Volunteers_Handbook_Notes_on_Guerrilla_Warfare/IRA_Volunteers_Handbook_Notes_on_Guerrilla_Warfare_djvu.txt
References
Alonso, R. (2007). The IRA and armed struggle. London, New York: Routledge.
Bartov, O. (1992). Hitler’s army: Soldiers, nazis, and war in the third Reich. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bartov, O. (2001). The eastern front, 1941–1945: German troops and the barbarization of warfare. London: Palgrave.
Bishop, P., & Mallie, E. (1988). The provisional IRA. London: Corgi.
Bolten, C. (2012). I did it to save my life: Love and survival in Sierra Leone (pp. 21–22). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bougarel, X. (2006). The shadow of heros: former combatants in post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina. International Social Science Journal, 58(189), 479–490.
Bradley, G., & Feeney, B. (2012). Insider: Gerry Bradley’s life in the IRA. Dublin: O'Brien.
British Army. (2006). Operation Banner: An analysis of military operations in Northern Ireland. Prepared under the direction of the Chief of the General Staff. London: Ministry of Defence.
Cigar, N. (2001). Serb war effort and termination of the war. In B. Magaš & I. Žanić (Eds.), The war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina 1991–1995. London: Frank Cass.
Clausewitz, C. (1984 [1832]). On war. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Collier, P. (2000). Doing well out of war: An economic perspective. In M. Berdal & D. Malone (Eds.), Greed and grievance: Economic agendas in civil wars. Lynne Rienner: Boulder, CO.
Collins, R. (2008). Violence: A micro-sociological theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Collins, R. (2013). Does nationalist sentiment increase fighting efficancy? A skeptical view from the sociology of violence. In J. A. Hall & S. Malešević (Eds.), Nationalism and war. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Collins, E. & MacGovern, M. (1997) Killing rage. Granta Books.
Conway, K. (2014). Southside provisional: From freedom fighter to the four courts. Dublin: Orpen Press.
Coogan, T. P. (1987). The IRA. Glasgow: Fontana.
Cooley, C. (1909). Social organization: A study of the larger mind. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Daniel, J. (2011). Sampling essentials. London: Sage.
De Soysa, I. (2002). Paradise is a bazaar? Greed, creed, and governance in civil war, 1989–1999. Journal of Peace Research, 39(4), 395–416.
Dimitirijević, B. B. (2001). Militarism and the creation of social identities since 1945: A comparative study on cases of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Sofia: Centre for Advanced Studies.
Du Picq, A. (2006 [1880]) Battle studies. New York: Bazaarbooks.
English, R. (2003). Armed struggle: The history of the IRA. London: Pan.
Gaub, F. (2011). Military Integration after Civil Wars. London: Routledge.
Gat, A. (2006). War in human civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gow, J. (1992). Legitimacy and the military: The Yugoslav crisis. London: Pinter.
Gray, C. H. (1997). Postmodern war: The new politics of conflict. New York: Guilford Press.
Hanley, B., & Millar, S. (2010). The lost revolution: The story of the official IRA and the Workers’ Party. London: Penguin.
Hiers, W., & Wimmer, A. (2013). Is nationalism the cause or consequence of imperial breakdown? In J. A. Hall & S. Malešević (Eds.), Nationalism and war. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Judah, T. (1997). The Serbs. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Kalyvas, S. (2006). The logic of violence in civil war. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Keegan, J. (1994). A history of warfare. New York: Vintage.
King, A. (2013). The combat soldier: Infantry tactics and cohesion in the 21st century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
King, A. (2015). Discipline and punish: Encouraging combat performance in the citizen and professional army. In A. King (Ed.), Frontline: Combat and cohesion in 21 st century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Leader Maynard, J. (2014). Rethinking the role of ideology in mass atrocities. Terrorism and Political Violence, 26(5), 821–841.
Machiavelli, N (1985 [1520]). The prince. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Magaš, B., & Žanić, I. (2001). The war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina 1991–1995. London: Frank Cass.
Malešević, S. (2002). Ideology, legitimacy and the new state. London: Routledge.
Malešević, S. (2006). Identity as ideology. New York: Plagrave.
Malešević, S. (2010). The sociology of war and violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Malešević, S. (2013). Nation-states and nationalisms: Organization, ideology and solidarity. Cambridge: Polity.
Malešević, S. (2017). The rise of organised brutality: A historical sociology of violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mann, M. (2012). The sources of social power III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mann, M. (2013). The sources of social power IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marshall, S. (1947). Men against fire: The problem of battle command. New York: Morrow.
Milovanović, M. (2011). Stvaranje i razvoj Vojske Republike Srpske u toku Odbrambeno-Otadzbinskog rata u BiH 1992 do 1995 godine. In Vojska Republike Srpske u Odbrambeno-Otadzbinskom ratu: Aspekti, Organizacija, Operacije. Banja Luka: Republicki Centar za istrazivanje Ratnih Zlocina.
Moloney, E. (2002). A secret history of the IRA. London: Penguin.
Moloney, E. (2010). Voices from the grave: two men’s war in Ireland. London: Faber and Faber.
Moskos, C. (1975). The American combat soldier in Vietnam. Journal of Social Issues, 31(4), 25–37.
Ó Dochartaigh, N. (2010). Nation and Neighbourhood: Nationalist mobilisation and local solidarities in the north of Ireland. In A. Guelke (Ed.), The challenges of ethno-nationalism. Palgrave: Basingstoke.
O’Donnell, R. (2012). The Boston college tapes. History Ireland,, 12–16.
O’Donnell, R. (2017). The provisional IRA: History, politics and remembrance. In J. Smyth (Ed.), Remembering the troubles: Contesting the recent past in Northern Ireland. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame.
Oberschall, A. (2000). The manipulation of ethnicity: from ethnic cooperation to violence and war in Yugoslavia. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 23(6), 982–1001.
O'Ballance, E. (1995). Civil war in Bosnia, 1992-1994. New York: Palgrave.
O'Brien, B. (1999). The long war: The IRA and Sinn Féin. Dublin: O'Brien.
O'Leary, B. (2007). Analysing partition: Definition, classification and explanation. Political Geography, 26(8), 886–908.
Pravilo službe VRS (1993). Banja Luka: Vojska Republike Srpske.
Ron, J. (2003). Frontiers and ghettos: State violence in Serbia and Israel. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ross, M. (2006). A closer look at oil, diamonds, and civil war. Annual Review of Political Science, 9, 265–300.
Rush, R. (1999). A different perspective: cohesion, morale, and operational effectiveness in the German Army, fall 1944. Armed Forces & Society, 25(3), 477–508 499–500.
Shils, E., & Janowitz, M. (1948). Cohesion and disintegration in the Wehrmacht in world war II. Public Opinion Quarterly, 12, 280–315.
Siebold, G. (2007). The essence of military cohesion. Armed Forces and Society, 33(2), 286–295.
Smith, M. L. R. (1997). Fighting for Ireland? The military strategy of the Irish republican movement. London: Routledge.
Stewart, N. K. (1991). Mates and Muchachos: Unit cohesion in the Falklands/ Malvinas war. New York: Brasseys Inc..
Stouffer, S., et al. (1949). The American soldier: Combat and its aftermath. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Van Evera, S. (1994). Hypotheses on nationalism and war. International Security, 8(4), 5–39.
Van Voris, W. (1975). Violence in Ulster: an oral documentary. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Wimmer, A. (2013). The waves of war: Nationalism, state formation and ethnic exclusion in the modern world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Žanic, I. (2007). Flag on the mountain: A political anthropology of war in Croatia and Bosnia. London: Saqi.
Žunec, O., et al. (2013). Oficir i casnik. Hrvatska Sveucilisna Naklada: Zagreb.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our interviewees for sharing their experiences with us. We would also like to thank Katy Hayward, John A Hall and the four anonymous Theory and Society reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Malešević, S., Ó Dochartaigh, N. Why combatants fight: the Irish Republican Army and the Bosnian Serb Army compared. Theor Soc 47, 293–326 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-018-9315-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-018-9315-9