We study the long-term effects of intergroup contact on nation building by exploiting a
national lottery that randomly allocated conscripts to different military areas across Spain …

Dictators depend on a committed bureaucracy to implement their policy preferences. But
how do they induce loyalty and effort within their civil service? The authors study …

The construction of overseas military bases requires significant investment from the defence
budget, but the literature is still divided on whether this has a negative impact on the host …

Introduction The current research explores the association between political views, combat
experiences, and the adaptation of soldiers to post-service life. Violent experiences in …

This paper investigates when and how political preferences that were shaped by conflict
express themselves into electoral outcomes. During World War II, the Third Reich annexed …

Defense spending accounts for a large share of the budget in many countries, but the value
of the resulting public good–national defense–has so far escaped assessment. Much of the …

We examine how changing the costs of acquiring citizenship translates into naturalization
decisions for second-generation immigrants, and the effect of naturalization on their labor …

The leaders of authoritarian regimes often invoke nationalist themes to garner support from
their populations. However, negative experiences with the regime may effectively inoculate …

In 1997, the French government put into effect a law that permanently exempted young
French men born after 1 January 1979 from mandatory military service. This paper uses a …

On average, veterans are more civically and politically engaged than civilians. Previous
research on the effects of military service, however, did not account for differences in …