Combat Soldiers and Their Experiences of Violence: Returning to Post-heroic Societies?

Abstract

In Afghanistan, armed forces from Western countries such as Germany actively used violence in combat for the first time since the end of World War II. This active use of force in Afghanistan caused in some Western troop contributing countries a rupture resulting from a discrepancy of values and realities between so-called post-heroic societies and its armed forces in robust deployment. During their ISAF mission, a large number of soldiers were no longer mere passive victims of violence during attacks but were also confronted with the challenge of actively participating in combat and having to kill, if necessary. Based on half-structured in-depth interviews with German soldiers returning from Afghanistan as well as on interpretation of research material from other troop contributing countries, this paper focuses on the subjective perceptions and interpretations of military violence by soldiers. In a second step, we also discuss how these soldiers reintegrate as members of post-heroic societies and what challenges they face upon homecoming. The ‘theorem of post-heroic societies’ is questioned here as civil-military relations go well beyond this hypothesis: Soldiers and civil societies alike display more diverse answers to experiences of violence in theatre nowadays.