Practical Soldiers: Israel’s Military Thought and Its Formative Factors

Download or read book Practical Soldiers: Israel’s Military Thought and Its Formative Factors written by Avi Kober and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-11-16 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book suggests a general framework for the analysis of formative factors in military thought and offers an account of the Israel Defense Force’s state of intellectualism and modernity. This account is followed by an attempt to trace the factors that have shaped Israeli military thought. The explanations are a mixture of realist and non-realist factors, which can be found at both the systemic and the state level of analysis. At the systemic level, realist evaluations focus on factors such as the dominance of the technological dimension and the pervasiveness of asymmetrical, low-intensity conflict; whereas at the state level one can find realist explanations, cultural factors, and societal influences. Moral and legal constraints also factor into both the systemic and state levels.