One of the fundamental questions the Pentagon continuously grapples with is the determination of allies’ and adversaries’ willingness to fight in a conflict — an intangible, unquantifiable assessment that could prove fatal if incorrect.

There are a plethora of factors that can impact the analysis: the stakes of the conflict, what triggered it, how it is perceived by enemies, morale, and the objective, just to name a few. Each of them could hold different weights to various entities, and there is a “will to fight” assessment for both military leaders as well as the forces under them who could be on the front lines.