“May God have mercy upon our enemies, because we won’t.” A Weberian ideal-type analysis of malign and benign reality perceptions of the enemy within the U.S. military

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the attitudes harboured by members of the U.S. military in regards to the 16 year long, ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. Encompassing theoretical concepts such as enemy images and stereotyping, this thesis conducted a Weberian Ideal Type analysis on eight interviews. The characteristics of the two extreme ideal types to which the materials will be compared to assess pattern development and deviations from said patterns is outlined in Dr. Steiner's forthcoming works. ​These two concepts will be applied to eight interviews with U.S. military service members. These soldiers versions of reality are important to analysis due to the prospects that this information can help serve for future peacebuilding efforts. The findings of this study displayed the need for further research. There can not be any concrete claims made in terms of attitudes due to the small sample size and the lack of distinguishable patterns for all of the components of ideal type enemy images with the exception of component one which is outlined as ‘delimitations.’