13 April 2022

The Will to Fight in the Age of Social Media

William Marcellino and Michael J. McNerney

Russia's invasion of Ukraine hasn't gone as expected—instead of rolling across the country in a few days, unexpectedly stiff resistance from Ukraine's military—and civilians—has confounded Russian military leaders. It appears that the Kremlin, and many Western analysts, underestimated Ukrainian military capacity, but even more important, their will to fight.

RAND research on will to fight at the tactical and operational level of battle, as well as at the geopolitical level of nation-states, has argued for the importance of understanding will to fight: the most important factor in war, but also the least understood.

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