The Committed Officers of Argentina’s Dirty War

When are military forces willing to carry out atrocities against a civilian population? Looking at Argentina’s Dirty War (1975–1981), in which government forces may have disappeared or murdered as many as 30,000 people, political scientist Adam Scharpf argues that a significant factor is officers who share the ideology of the regime.

Scharpf writes that, while governments use tactics like drills, hazing, and political indoctrination to mold obedient officers, these may have mixed effectiveness...