Wounded by Friendly Fire Policy Palliatives and Internal Conflict in the Gulf War Illness Movement

abstract: Political movements seek influence in policy-making, but are typically marked by intra-movement conflict, which, analysts argue, reduces the achieve-ment of social change. This article examines the effects of conflict within the Gulf War illness movement on its influencing government policy-making. Using in-depth interviews, participant observation and document analyses, the article assesses the movement’s policy outcome, examines the substance of the conflict and analyzes the ways in which it hampered the movement’s execution of policy-relevant tasks. It is found that intra-movement conflict over activists ’ divergent views of the government’s intentionality with regard to veterans ’ hazardous expo-sure impaired the movement’s execution of tasks that would have had a critical influence on policy-making. As a consequence, public pressure was insufficient to precipitate a legitimation crisis for the state, permitting government officials to evade the movement’s demands and liability while imparting the image of responsiveness through weak policy formulations and implementation. The out-come was one of policy palliatives rather than curatives