"This textbook is designed to help Marines link concepts of culture to the realities of planning and executing military operations around the world." -- p. 2.

"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.

This textbook is a collaboration between the United States Marine Corps Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning and the Marine Corps University. Originally published in May 2009 in limited numbers this book studies the role of cultural awareness in securing operational success in the battlespace. This book is designed to help link concepts of culture to the realities of planning and and executing military operations around the world. The book has three primary goals: To provide a theoretically sound framework of five basic cultural dimensions, based on clear, academically accurate definitions, which are relevant to military missions; To apply these basic cultural principles to actual environments to which the military are deployed, or may deploy in the future, showing how the principles of Operational Culture can be applied across the geographic and kinetic spectrum of operations; To develop a capacity among the military at all levels to think systemically about culture, and to apply that thinking to learning about culture in both professional military education and pre-deployment training.

"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.

"This textbook is designed to help Marines link concepts of culture to the realities of planning and executing military operations around the world." -- p. 2.

Foreword; Introduction; Chapter One: Maslow is Non-Deployable: Modifying Maslow's Hierarchy for Contemporary Counterinsurgency; Chapter Two: The Use of Cultural Studies in Military Operations: A Model for Assessing Values-Based Differences; Chapter Three: Developing the Iraqi Army: The Long Fight in the Long War; Chapter Four: The Way Ahead: Reclaiming the Pashtun Tribes through JointTribal Engagement; Chapter Five: The Application of Cultural Military Education for 2025; Chapter Six: Operational Culture: Is the Australian Army Driving the Train or Left Standing at the Station ? Conclusions. Appendixes. Photos. Maps.

The United States Marine Corps has a unique culture that ensures comradery, exacting standards, and readiness to be the first to every fight. Yet even in a group that is known for innovation, culture can push leaders to fall back on ingrained preferences. Jeannie L. Johnson takes a sympathetic but critical look at the Marine Corps's long experience with counterinsurgency warfare. Which counterinsurgency lessons have been learned and retained for next time and which have been abandoned to history is a story of battlefield trial and error—but also a story of cultural collisions. The book begins with a fascinating and penetrating look inside the culture of the Marine Corps through research in primary sources, including Marine oral histories, and interviews with Marines. Johnson explores what makes this branch of the military distinct: their identity, norms, values, and perceptual lens. She then traces the history of the Marines' counterinsurgency experience from the expeditionary missions of the early twentieth century, through the Vietnam War, and finally to the Iraq War. Her findings break new ground in strategic culture by introducing a methodology that was pioneered in the intelligence community to forecast behavior. Johnson shows that even a service as self-aware and dedicated to innovation as the Marine Corps is constrained in the lessons-learned process by its own internal predispositions, by the wider US military culture, and by national preferences. Her findings challenge the conclusions of previous counterinsurgency scholarship that ignores culture. This highly readable book reminds us of Sun Tzu's wisdom that to be successful in war, it is important to know thyself as well as the enemy. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the Marines Corps, counterinsurgency warfare, military innovation, or strategic culture.

Conducting the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) and projecting United States (US) influence worldwide has meant an increasing number of US diplomats and military forces are assigned to locations around the world, some of which have not previously had a significant US presence. In the current security environment, understanding foreign cultures and societies has become a national priority. Cultural understanding is necessary both to defeat adversaries and to work successfully with allies.

For the past decade, the U.S. Marine Corps and its sister services have been engaged in what has been termed "hybrid warfare," which ranges from active combat to civilian support. Hybrid warfare typically occurs in environments where all modes of war are employed, such as conventional weapons, irregular tactics, terrorism, disruptive technologies, and criminality to destabilize an existing order. In August 2010, the National Research Council established the Committee on Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders to produce Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders. This report examines the operational environment, existing abilities, and gap to include data, technology, skill sets, training, and measures of effectiveness for small unit leaders in conducting enhanced company operations (ECOs) in hybrid engagement, complex environments. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also determines how to understand the decision making calculus and indicators of adversaries. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders recommends operational and technical approaches for improving the decision making abilities of small unit leaders, including any acquisition and experimentation efforts that can be undertaken by the Marine Corps and/or by other stakeholders aimed specifically at improving the decision making of small unit leaders. This report recommends ways to ease the burden on small unit leaders and to better prepare the small unit leader for success. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also indentifies a responsible organization to ensure that training and education programs are properly developed, staffed, operated, evaluated, and expanded.