ABSTRACT

This new handbook provides an introduction to current sociological and behavioral research on the effects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan represent two of the most interesting and potentially troubling events of recent decades. These two wars-so similar in their beginnings-generated different responses from various publics and the mass media; they have had profound effects on the members of the armed services, on their families and relatives, and on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Analyzing the effect of the two wars on military personnel and civilians, this volume is divided into four main parts:

Part I: War on the Ground: Combat and Its Aftermath

Part II: War on the Ground: Non-Combat Operations, Noncombatants, and Operators

Part III: The War Back Home: The Social Construction of War, Its Heroes, And Its Enemies                                                                                                                         

Part IV: The War Back Home: Families and Youth on the Home Front

With contributions from leading academic sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, military researchers, and researchers affiliated with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), this Handbook will be of interest to students of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, military sociology and psychology, war studies, anthropology, US politics, and of youth.

Steven Carlton-Ford is associate professor of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. He recently served for five years as the editor of Sociological Focus.

Morten G. Ender is professor of sociology and Sociology Program Director at West Point, the United States Military Academy. He is the author of American Soldiers in Iraq (Routledge 2009).

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

BySteven Carlton-Ford, Morten G. Ender

part |2 pages

Part I War on the ground: combat and its aftermath

chapter 3|12 pages

Learning the lessons of counterinsurgency

ByIan Roxborough

chapter 4|12 pages

Twenty-first century narratives from Afghanistan: Storytelling, morality, and war

ByMorality, and War Ryan D. Pengelly and Anne Irwin

chapter 5|12 pages

Two US combat units in Iraq: Psychological contracts when expectations and realities diverge

ByWilbur J. Scott, David R. McCone, George R. Mastroianni

chapter 6|10 pages

Capture of Saddam Hussein: Social network analysis and counterinsurgency operations

ByBrian J. Reed, David R. Segal

chapter 7|10 pages

Apples, barrels, and Abu Ghraib

ByGeorge R. Mastroianni, George E. Reed

part |2 pages

Part II War on the ground: non-combat operations, non-combatants, and operators

chapter 9|11 pages

Policing post-war Iraq: Insurgency, civilian police, and the reconstruction of society

ByMathieu Deflem, Suzanne Sutphin

chapter 11|12 pages

Managing humanitarian information in Iraq

ByAldo Benini, Charles Conley, Joseph M. Donahue, Shawn Messick

chapter 12|12 pages

Role of contractors and other non-military personnel in today’s wars

ByO. Shawn Cupp and William C. Latham, Jr.

chapter 13|14 pages

Evaluating psychological operations in Operation Enduring Freedom

ByJames E. Griffith

chapter 14|11 pages

Armed Conflict and Health: Cholera in Iraq

ByDaniel Poole

chapter 15|13 pages

Iraqi adolescents: Self-regard, self-derogation, and perceived threat in war

BySteve Carlton-Ford, Morten G. Ender, Ahoo Tabatabai

part |2 pages

Part III The war back home: the social construction of war, its heroes, and its enemies

chapter 17|11 pages

The Pakistan and Afghan crisis

ByRiaz Ahmed Shaikh

chapter 18|11 pages

Mass media as risk-management in the “war on terror”

ByChristopher M. Pieper

chapter 19|12 pages

Talking war: How elite US newspaper editorials and opinion pieces debated the attack on Iraq

ByAlexander G. Nikolaev, Douglas V. Porpora

chapter 21|12 pages

Making heroes: An attributional perspective

ByGregory C. Gibson, Richard Hogan, John Stahura, Eugene Jackson

chapter 22|12 pages

Making the Muslim enemy: The social construction of the enemy in the war on terror

ByErin Steuter, Deborah Wills

part |2 pages

Part IV The war back home: families and young people on the home front

chapter 23|12 pages

Greedy media: Army families, embedded reporting, and war in Iraq

ByMorten G. Ender, Kathleen M. Campbell, Toya J. Davis, Patrick R. Michaelis

chapter 24|11 pages

Military child well-being in the face of multiple deployments

ByRachel Lipari, Anna Winters, Kenneth Matos, Jason Smith, Lindsay Rock

chapter 25|12 pages

American undergraduate attitudes toward the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: Trends and variations

ByMorten G. Ender, David E. Rohall, Michael D. Matthews