The Warrior Ethos

In The Warrior Ethos, Christopher Coker discusses the concept of warriors and war, covering warrior culture from ancient Greece to the Iraq War, taking in philosophy, psychology, political thought, culture and news media. In modern Western society, warriors face three different challenges. The ?rst is that the warrior myth, as embodied by Achilles, no longer holds as great a resonance as it once did. Western societies are increasingly sceptical of the warrior’s existential pursuit of glory or reputation, and, more worryingly, the will- ingness to sacrifice oneself, to go beyond the call of duty. Warriors are also struggling with the increasingly technological basis of war.