During the past decades, militaries have increasingly used force against civilians and armed adversaries in operational settings other than war. Theories about legitimacy for the use of military force often focus on macro variables such as international law, government policy, and structural political contingencies. The strength of such theories in explaining military violence during conventional wars notwithstanding, this article argues that they fail to explain the legitimization of the use of force in situations that cannot be categorized as “classic” warfare, where institutional and international norms seem to fade, rational calculations become unclear, and governments often do not hold themselves accountable for soldiers’ violent behavior. When such conflicts linger, they often develop into situations in which sovereignty is fragmented and statehood is limited in ways that further undermine institutional legitimacy. Using the accounts of Israeli soldiers deployed in the occupied Palestinian territories in the last two decades, this article broadens the analytical perspective on military violence's legitimacy by depicting its micromechanisms and local factors. In doing so, it identifies three clusters of factors: emotions, space and time, and informal organizational culture. We posit that, during intense friction between soldiers and civilians in the context of prolonged occupation, the structural variables and formal powers that typically dictate the use of force give way to more fluctuating dynamics that shape the patterns of military violence and, ultimately, influence its legitimacy.

中文翻译：

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液体合法性：以色列占领西岸的军事暴力教训

在过去几十年中，军队越来越多地在战争以外的作战环境中对平民和武装对手使用武力。使用军事力量的合法性理论通常关注宏观变量，例如国际法、政府政策和结构性政治突发事件。尽管这些理论在解释常规战争期间的军事暴力方面具有优势，但本文认为，它们无法解释在不能归类为“经典”战争的情况下使用武力的合法化，在这些情况下，制度和国际规范似乎正在消退，理性的计算变得不清晰，政府往往不对士兵的暴力行为负责。当这样的冲突持续存在时，它们往往会发展成主权支离破碎、国家地位受到限制的局面，从而进一步破坏体制的合法性。本文利用过去二十年部署在巴勒斯坦被占领土上的以色列士兵的叙述，通过描述军事暴力的微观机制和当地因素，拓宽了对军事暴力合法性的分析视角。这样做时，它确定了三组因素：情感、空间和时间以及非正式的组织文化。我们假设，在长期占领的背景下士兵和平民之间的激烈摩擦期间，通常决定使用武力的结构变量和正式权力让位于塑造军事暴力模式并最终影响军事暴力模式的更多波动动态合法性。