Neil D. Shortland, Laurence J. Alison, and Joseph M. Moran’s book Conflict: How Soldiers Make Impossible Decisions is an enlightening study of decision-making in combat that will interest both academics and military professionals. Conflict is about how people make “least-worst” decisions—how people choose when all their options appear to lead to terrible outcomes. Using interviews of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans, the authors examine the mental conflict that arises when people face least-worst decisions and the psychological processes they use to overcome that conflict and commit to a course of action.
Conflict centers on three key ideas. First, it explores the factors that make decisions hard such as uncertainty, stress, emotion, and risk. Second, it identifies decision inertia as a critical inhibitor of effective decision-making. Decision inertia is when decision-makers fail to act because they spend too much time analyzing their choices. Third, the book finds that values help people make difficult decisions. The authors argue that military service members use sacred values to choose among grim alternatives.
