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Reports and Findings on the Will to Fight

Final Publications

Mar 4, 2026

Tactical Will to Fight Assessment Guide: A How-To Manual for Conducting Tactical Will to Fight Assessments

The objective of this tool is to improve will to fight (W2F) analysis and assessments. The tool gives analysts (information, intelligence, or otherwise) a structured analytic approach for assessing adversary or partner W2F at the tactical level.

Jonathan Welch, Annie Yu Kleiman, Sam Wallace, Christopher Paul
May 1, 2024

The Information Warfighter Exercise Wargame: Second Edition — Rulebook

This document presents the updated, second edition ruleset for the Information Warfighter Exercise Wargame, which is used by the Marine Corps to provide training on information capabilities and activities.

Christopher Paul, Jonathan Welch, Ben Connable, Nate Rosenblatt, Jim McNeive
Jul 31, 2023

Will to Fight of Private Military Actors: Applying Cognitive Maneuver to Russian Private Forces

An adaptation of the RAND-developed military will-to-fight model highlights potential opportunities to use cognitive maneuver to counter Russian-hired private military actors' operational effectiveness around the globe.

Molly Dunigan, Anthony Atler
Jun 27, 2023

Can Taiwan Resist a Large-Scale Military Attack by China? Assessing Strengths and Vulnerabilities in a Potential Conflict

In this report, the authors develop a framework for assessing a country's capacity to resist a large-scale attack and then use that framework to assess Taiwan's capacity to resist such an attack by China long enough for U.S. forces to intervene.

Timothy R. Heath, Sale Lilly, Eugeniu Han
Jan 11, 2022

Iraqi Army Will to Fight: A Will-to-Fight Case Study with Lessons for Western Security Force Assistance

This is a study of Iraqi Army will to fight. It applies the RAND military will-to-fight model and assessment tool to three cases and recommends changes to U.S. security force assistance.

Ben Connable
Aug 24, 2021

The Information Warfighter Exercise Wargame: Rulebook

This document presents the full ruleset for the Information Warfighter Exercise Wargame, which is used by the Marine Corps to provide training for aspects of operations in the information environment.

Christopher Paul, Ben Connable, Jonathan Welch, Nate Rosenblatt, Jim McNeive
Sep 13, 2019

Will to Fight: Returning to the Human Fundamentals of War

This brief argues for the importance of improving our understanding of what influences will to fight, and it describes two models for doing so: one for analyzing a military unit's will to fight, and one for analyzing a nation's will to fight.

Ben Connable, Michael J. McNerney, William Marcellino, Aaron B. Frank, Henry Hargrove, Marek N. Posard, S. Rebecca Zimmerman, Natasha Lander, Jasen J. Castillo, James Sladden, Anika Binnendijk, Elizabeth M. Bartels, Abby Doll, Rachel Tecott, Benjamin J. Fernandes, Niklas Helwig, Giacomo Persi Paoli, Krystyna Marcinek, Paul Cornish
Sep 20, 2018

Will to Fight: Analyzing, Modeling, and Simulating the Will to Fight of Military Units

This report defines and describes will to fight and provides a model of unit will to fight that can be applied to ground combat units of any scale. It also provides a theoretical basis for adding will to fight to military war gaming.

Ben Connable, Michael J. McNerney, William Marcellino, Aaron B. Frank, Henry Hargrove, Marek N. Posard, S. Rebecca Zimmerman, Natasha Lander, Jasen J. Castillo, James Sladden
Sep 20, 2018

National Will to Fight: Why Some States Keep Fighting and Others Don't

In this report, RAND researchers propose an exploratory model of 15 variables that shape a national government's decision to continue or end military and other operations during a conflict (i.e., national will to fight).

Michael J. McNerney, Ben Connable, S. Rebecca Zimmerman, Natasha Lander, Marek N. Posard, Jasen J. Castillo, Dan Madden, Ilana Blum, Aaron B. Frank, Benjamin J. Fernandes, In Hyo Seol, Christopher Paul, Andrew Parasiliti
Jan 1, 1970

Why the North Vietnamese Keep Fighting

The author concludes in this assessment of North Vietnamese war intentions that the arguments for continuing the struggle are too powerful to permit hopeful speculation over a North Vietnamese decision to quit the fight.

Brian Michael Jenkins
Jan 1, 1972

Why the North Vietnamese Will Keep Fighting

Some factors explaining why the North Vietnamese will probably not abandon the war.

Brian Michael Jenkins

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