Get real: chasing Danish warrior dreams in the Afghan ‘sandbox’
Get real: chasing Danish warrior dreams in the Afghan ‘sandbox’
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现实一点：在阿富汗“沙盒”中追逐丹麦战士的梦想
DOI：
10.1080/23337486.2016.1231996
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发表时间：
2017
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
T. Pedersen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
T. Pedersen
如果战争不仅仅是一种破坏性的力量呢？如果战争也能提供重生的可能性呢？如果战争蕴藏着自我成长、实现梦想和满足欲望的潜力，那又会怎样呢？手头的调查表明，随着丹麦在伊拉克和阿富汗的军事行动，丹麦的勇士精神已经复苏。针对丹麦士兵的作战角色和社会身份的这种根本性转变，本文认为，有丹麦士兵在阿富汗寻求战争作为一个存在的机会之窗，跟随他们成为“真正的战士”的愿望，从而将自己重生为“真正的个体”。基于对国际安全援助部队（ISAF）最后一批丹麦作战士兵的民族志实地调查，本研究从民族志上探讨了这些国际安全援助部队的丹麦士兵在阿富汗赫尔曼德省执行任务之前、期间和之后，是如何在一段时间内表达他们的战士梦想并采取行动的。这篇文章表明，有些丹麦士兵对战争感到幻灭，不是因为任何野蛮行为，而是因为实际上没有任何真正的战斗行动。因此，调查一方面见证了一些丹麦士兵的战士梦想是如何被一场相对平静的战争打破的，另一方面，这些士兵中的一些人是如何试图通过重返战争来修补他们破碎的战士梦想的，以获得第二次机会。
ABSTRACT What if war is not simply a destructive force? What if war might also offer possibilities of regeneration? What if war harbours potential for self-becoming, for realizing one’s dreams, and for fulfilling one’s desires? The inquiry at hand suggests that Danish warriorhood has been revived with Denmark’s military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. Addressing this fundamental transformation of the Danish soldier’s operational role and social identity, this article argues that there are Danish troops who seek out war in Afghanistan as an existential window of opportunity for following their desires to become ‘true warriors’ and thereby regenerate themselves as ‘authentic individuals’. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with some of the very last Danish combat soldiers deployed with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), this study explores ethnographically how these Danish ISAF troops give voice to and act upon their warrior dreams over time – before, during, and after a tour of duty in the Afghan Helmand Province. The article shows that there are Danish soldiers who become disillusioned by war – not because of any barbarity, but because of the virtual absence of any real acts of combat. As such, the inquiry bears witness, on the one hand, to how some Danish soldiers have their warrior dreams shattered by what turned out in their case to be a relatively uneventful war and, on the other hand, to how a few of these troops attempt to mend their broken warrior dreams by returning to war for a second chance.