1. Institute for Global Security Studies
Can you have COINCan you have COIN
without cultural awareness?without cultural awareness?
2. Institute for Global Security Studies
Central QuestionsCentral Questions
• How is Cultural Awareness (CA) central to
fighting a COIN operation?
• What’s the linkage between the
importance of understanding the culture
and people in counterinsurgency
operations?
3. Institute for Global Security Studies
COIN Operational ConcernsCOIN Operational Concerns
• Is a lack of CA affecting our ability?
• Is an institutionally-limited CA limiting
our operational effectiveness?
• Are we relying on our cultural
language to deliver messages to
those in another culture?
4. Institute for Global Security Studies
COIN Doctrinal ConcernsCOIN Doctrinal Concerns
• Is CA receiving sufficient doctrinal
emphasis?
• Are we focused on CA as an
afterthought?
• Is CA (not PC) terminology
incorporated in our training
doctrine?
6. Institute for Global Security Studies
There are only two powers in
the world … the sword and
the spirit. In the long run,
the sword is always
defeated by the spirit.
–Napolean Bonaparte
7. Institute for Global Security Studies
. . . the U.S. Army does not have the
mind-set for combat operations
where the key terrain is the mind,
not the high ground. We do not take
the time to understand the nature of
the society in which we are
fighting . . . or the enemy we are
fighting.
– LTC Lawrence Bayer (in the dissertation of
Dr. David H. Petraeus, 1987)
8. Institute for Global Security Studies
Cultural awareness isn't going to
turn this situation around (we
need to stop pandering to our
enemies and defeat them).
– Ralph Peters, January 5, 2007 New York Post
9. Institute for Global Security Studies
In places where people work,
study, and live, it is easy to collect
all kinds of information on
payments, business, plans of all
kinds, points of view, opinions,
people's state of mind, etc.
– Carlos Marighella, 1969. "Minimanual of the urban
guerilla."
10. Institute for Global Security Studies
Guerrilla hostilities are the
university of war . . . the
fountainhead of guerrilla
warfare is in the masses of the
people . . .
– Mao Tse–tung, 1937, "On guerilla warfare."
11. Institute for Global Security Studies
“Culture is like an iceberg. The tip
of the iceberg is the smallest part.
That which you can easily see—
the behavior of people—is the
smallest part of culture.
– Dr. Gary Weaver, Executive Director of
American University’s Intercultural
Management Institute
12. Institute for Global Security Studies
The nation that wants to achieve
victory over its enemy must know
that enemy very well. . .
Those who fight an enemy that they
do not know, do not win . . .
– General Mahmoud Sheet Khattab
– (Al Qaeda Training Manual)
13. Institute for Global Security Studies
What are we missing?What are we missing?
• Community attitude?
• Dynamics of group psychology?
• Cultural awareness retention?
• What role does the language play?
• What benefit is it to the individual to
develop cultural awareness?
14. Institute for Global Security Studies
Where can we go?Where can we go?
• General CA training?
• Encourage self-study/specialization?
• Provide for environment of application?
• Enlist partners – outside DoD?
• Informal situational language training?
• Promote Global Competence!
15. Institute for Global Security Studies
Quotes from Ground LevelQuotes from Ground Level
• If you don't know where they are starting
from, how can you get them to where they
are going?
• If we are getting shot at, we should know
why, and by whom!
• Insurgents study how they should look,
talk, and make excuses for mistakes. For
them to blend in, they have to know the
culture.
17. Institute for Global Security Studies
How is CA centralHow is CA central
to fighting a COIN operation?to fighting a COIN operation?
18. Institute for Global Security Studies
What’s the linkage betweenWhat’s the linkage between
understanding the culture andunderstanding the culture and
people in COIN?people in COIN?
Talk the Cultural tie in to COIN and facilitate a discussion on the issue.
with background in Gangs - the ability to tie in how a Culture leads people to act in a certain manner, the Human Dimension and Human Networking.
invoke a discussion amongst his audience. He will brief more on the operational and doctrinal aspects of COIN and touch on the linkage between the importance of understanding the culture and people.
Horne, A. (1988). To Lose a Battle: France, 1940. London: Penguin Books, p. 74.
Talk the Cultural tie in to COIN and facilitate a discussion on the issue.
with background in Gangs - the ability to tie in how a Culture leads people to act in a certain manner, the Human Dimension and Human Networking.
invoke a discussion amongst his audience. He will brief more on the operational and doctrinal aspects of COIN and touch on the linkage between the importance of understanding the culture and people.
