Post-Cold War peacekeeping missions undermined military men’s sense of masculine identity.

Evidence

Schlafly was right to sense that peacekeeping forces differed from traditional militaries. Decoupled from nationalist agendas, the UN stood as a model of post–Cold War, nonimperialist military force, one that appeared to eschew traditional militarism and patriarchal masculinity. Some members of the military also found this change unsettling. In the aftermath of the Cold War and the Gulf War, marine fighter pilots reported that they were losing confidence in themselves. Two years after their decisive victory in Iraq, without a clear mission, they didn’t even feel “like real marines.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 330

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s core thesis about militant masculinity as the organizing center of evangelical identity — the loss of a masculine mission unsettles the same men, mirroring white evangelicals’ anxiety.