On cohesion / Anthony King-- Subaltern soldiers : Eurocentricism and the nation-state in the combat motivation debates / Tarak Barkawi -- Killing and cohesion in close combat : contexts and concepts from the First World War to the present / Rob Johnson -- From a sociology of units to a sociology of combat formations : militaries and cohesion in urban combat / Eyal Ben-Ari -- Discipline and punish : encouraging combat performance in the citizen and professional army / Anthony King -- Combat and cohesion in the early twentieth century : strengthening the inverted pyramid / Antulio J. Echevarria -- Re-evaluating combat cohesion : the British Second Army in the northwest Europe campaign of the Second World War / Jonathan Fennell -- New model diggers : Australian identity, motivation, and cohesion in Afghanistan / Garth Pratten -- A profession of love : cohesion in a British platoon in Afghanistan / Patrick Bury and Anthony King -- Hierarchy, status, and combat motivation in the French Foreign Legion / Mikaela Sundberg -- Cohesion and misconduct : the French Army and the Mahé affair / Pascal Vennesson -- Cohesion, political motivation, and military performance in the Italian Alpini / Chiara Ruffa -- Of FOBs and families / Leonard Wong and Stephen Gerras -- Beyond the battlefield / Christopher Dandeker and Simon Wessely -- The future of cohesion / Anthony King.

In the last few decades, Western ground troops have been involved in intense close-quarters fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan on a scale not seen since the Vietnam and Korean wars. As a consequence, a unique, if disturbing, archive of data has emerged concerning the behaviour of soldiers on operations, in combat, or preparing for combat. This volume draws together historians, social, and political scientists in order to analyse how professional Western forces have sought to generate unit cohesion and how they have performed on operations and in combat.