Understanding people, whether "knowing the other" or "knowing oneself,,, is not the kind of straightforward task with which military trainers and leaders are familiar. In fact, we often attempt to avoid the problem all together and look for technological solutions to human problems. This is in part a natural consequence of the U.S. military having held a decisive technical and industrial advantage on the battlefield for the past century. Yet in this advantage lies a corresponding...
More DescriptionUnderstanding people, whether "knowing the other" or "knowing oneself,,, is not the kind of straightforward task with which military trainers and leaders are familiar. In fact, we often attempt to avoid the problem all together and look for technological solutions to human problems. This is in part a natural consequence of the U.S. military having held a decisive technical and industrial advantage on the battlefield for the past century. Yet in this advantage lies a corresponding weakness when faced with problems that cannot be solved by technology. Although our theory of war emphasizes that the human dimension of war is the most critical element, we often fail to sufficiently account for it in our training and planning. At the core of understanding people is culture, a concept that is both useful and ambiguous. In order to overcome our natural aversion to ambiguity and uncertainty, we must admit that a deliberate and persistent effort is required to develop competence in the art of understanding people through culture. This guidebook, an important step in adopting such a methodical approach to culture in operations, presents an evolutionary approach to understanding the human dimension. The concepts and skills presented here under the umbrella of Culture General provide leaders, trainers, and educators a pragmatic toolkit to prepare service members for global employment. The absolute diversity of spoken languages in the world, estimated to be around 6,900 by some methods, and cultures guarantee that no nation's military will ever be perfectly prepared to operate in foreign environments. Nonetheless, the deliberate application of Culture General knowledge and skills to specific cultures and regions will produce forces as prepared as possible to deal with the complexities of the current operating environment both as individuals and as units.We should take satisfaction in the idea that this guidebook positions us well to extend the Culture General approach more broadly across the services. Based on a solid interdisciplinary foundation and grounded in accepted social science methods, this guidebook provides a bridge to more effective operations across the range of military operations.