Author Description

As the U.S. military has learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, working effectively with local populations is essential to operational success. In the past few years, all of the services have developed cultural education and training programs to prepare their members for operating overseas. To date, however, there has been no systematic effort to record and analyze the cultural lessons learned by these service members once they return from the field. Applications in Operational Culture. Perspectives from the Field presents six essays by experienced field-grade officers on the challenges, successes, and future warfighting problems of applying culture to military operations. The chapters in this book focus on a spectrum of issues relevant to today's Marines and other service members. These include essays on the cultural and practical difficulties of training the Iraqi army; understanding tribal factors in Afghanistan; questioning the applicability of Maslow's hierarchy in Iraqi culture; and developing a cultural training program for the Australian army. Drawing on cultural concepts developed in the companion text, Operational Culture for the Warfighter, the six contributors to this book turn theory into practice, evaluating the challenges of applying cultural principles to the realities of today's field environments. Operational Culture and the Marine Corps: A Historical Perspective * Creating Sound Cultural Analyses for the Military * Lessons Learned * Planning for the 21st Century * Chapter One: Maslow is Non-Deployable: Modifying Maslow's Hierarchy for Contemporary Counterinsurgency * Major Jonathan Dunne, USMC * Statement of the Problem * Operational Culture Defined * Understanding Ourselves through Maslow * The Iraq Case: Reassessing Maslow * Discussion of Findings * Conclusion * Chapter Two: The Use of Cultural Studies in Military Operations: A Model for Assessing Values-Based Differences * Lieutenant Colonel Alejandro P. Briceno, USMC * Culture and Military Operation