Operational Culture for the Warfighter: Principles and Applications (Second Edition)

"Operational Culture for the Warfighter: Principles and Applications" is a comprehensive planning tool and reference. It addresses the critical need of the Marine Corps to provide operationally relevant cultural teaching, training, and analysis. This book links social science paradigms to the needs of Marines using an applied anthropology approach. The text explains how fundamental features of culture (environment, economy, social structure, political structure, and belief systems) can present challenges for military operations in different cultures around the globe. Drawing on the research and field experiences of Marines themselves, "Operational Culture for the Warfighter" uses case studies from past and present cross-cultural problems to illustrate the application of cultural principles to the broad expeditionary spectrum of today's and tomorrow's Marine Corps. This new and expanded second edition of "Operational Culture for the Warfighter" extends the concepts of the original edition to the Marine Corps Planning Process. New sections on transportation and communication, law and ethics, and culture and planning will assist both military planners and operators with the practical aspects of incorporating culture into military decision-making.

 

Barak A. Salmoni has been a research analyst and project leader with the RAND Corporation where he focused on Middle East strategic issues as well as joint military training and education for leader development.  From 2005 to 2008 he was deputy director of the Marine Corps Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning.  He holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and has taught at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Naval Postgraduate School.

 

Paula Holmes-Eber is professor of operational culture at Marine Corps University.  She holds a PhD in anthropology from Northwestern University. Previously, she taught at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee as an assistant professor of anthropology and as a visiting  scholar at Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington.  She is the coauthor (with Patrice M. Scanlon and Andrea L. Hamlen) of the companion text to this book, Applications in Operational Culture: Perspectives from the Field (Marine Corps University Press) as well as the author of Daughters of Tunis: Women, Family, and Networks in a Muslim City (Westview Press).