Suchergebnisse

As the military integrates cyber into its structures, gradually more nations are recruiting and educating personnel to serve as "cyber officers". Tech-savvy men and women from 'Generation Y' grew up in the post-modern era, recognized not only by its individualism and erosion of overarching, coherent maxims, but also by the fact that technology is taken for granted. Thus, in the situation of the cyber officer a particular generation gap occurs, one in which the characteristics of postmodernity, military command structures and the inter-disciplinarity of cyber pull in conflicting directions. This friction creates a peculiar situation as technology and cyber contribute to sharpen the generation gap that necessarily exists between the young generation of cyber officers, and their superiors in the military. I explore this quandary through an examination of cyber officers' testimonies. In particular, I focus on the cyber officers' conceptualization of "cyber" and how this resonates with that of their superiors'. The data is ethnographic, based on interviews with cyber officer students at the Norwegian Defence Cyber Academy.

The military benefits from fostering an "us-feeling" among its members. On what basis is this formed? Rooted in the discipline of religion, the following article explores how religion feeds into the selective conscription practices of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Combining legal documents with data gathered through interviews with thirty-four soldiers in a combat battalion, it is argued that the IDF's conscription practices are sensitive to the contents of religion. The IDF applies a multifarious concept of religion with significant impact on the IDF's ability to foster a sense of "us." The IDF recruits draftees on the basis of a twofold definition of Judaism, either as an ethnic group or as a theological concept. Both definitions help determine whether one is drafted. Interviews with soldiers expand on this definition, drawing attention to the integrative as well as disintegrative consequences of this notion of religion within the IDF. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society/Sage Publications Inc.]

In the West Bank city of Hebron the Israeli-Palestinian conflict still overshadows all activities. Despite the tension, friction, and violence that have become integral to the city's everyday life, the Jewish Community of Hebron is expanding in numbers and geographical extent. Since the Six Day War, the community has attracted some of the most militant groups among the settlers in the West Bank, responsible for severe violence against Palestinians, including harassment, car bombs, and attempts to blow up the Dome of the Rock mosque itself. Why do the members of the Jewish Community of Hebron wish to live and raise their children in such a violent setting? Using a series of interviews with members of the Jewish Community of Hebron and related settler communities in the period 2000-05, the article examines the ways the Jewish Community legitimizes its disputed presence. It reveals a deep religious belief, blended with intense distrust of and hatred toward the Palestinian population. Adapted from the source document.

This article is the first to explore the Israel Defense Forces's official statistical data on Palestinian terrorism toward Israeli targets during the al-Aqsa intifada 2000-2004. Focusing the analysis on the logic of terrorist target choice, the article identifies two separate results: First, an unambiguous difference in the form of the attacks contingent on whether they are carried out in the state of Israel or in the Occupied Territories. Second, based on the same distinction, the analysis points out how the attacks are targeted toward distinctively different categories of the Israeli populace. Causes of the results are discussed. Adapted from the source document.