Political denationalization can paradoxically strengthen religionization inside the military

Evidence

As predicted by the theory about the linkage between extra-military and intramilitary processes (presented in the introduction), the denationalization of politics may paradoxically lead to the religionization of the military. The effects of demilitarization on the military opened up new opportunities for religious youth to improve their position in the IDF by taking advantage of the partial loss of interest in the military of their secular peers. These opportunities were reinforced with the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987, inviting religious soldiers to defend Israel’s contested control over what these soldiers perceived as the holy West Bank. Against this background, an alternative, new social mobility track appeared. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 869

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core question: when a unifying external-sacred-political frame (here, secular statist consensus) decays, new mobilization avenues repurpose rather than dissolve it — the manufactured-enemy/solidarity thread across readings. — connects to: Attempted reversal of IDF religionization institutionalized it rather than weakening it — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 899; Societal secularization and denationalization can paradoxically empower religious groups within armies — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 869; Declining national fervor can paradoxically empower religious groups inside militaries — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 869 (+1 more)
• SEED: The paradox that a retreat from national-political mobilization (demilitarization, denationalization) becomes the very opening for a MORE sacralized remobilization is a sharp, counterintuitive essay angle on threat-decay dynamics.
• QUESTION: Is this pattern generalizable — does threat-decay in other settings get counterbalanced by new sacred frames filling the vacuum, or is this an Israel-specific mechanism revolving on pre-existing primordial religious identity?
• recurring: this claim recurs 4 times within its source