Culture

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE: REBUILDING CULTURAL CAPABILITIES – AGAIN

Anyone paying attention to the last two decades of conflict has to acknowledge that understanding culture is important. Even if you think that culture is just that “squishy sh*t”, you’ve got to be honest that it’s difficult to understand enemy intent, analyze how best to train an allied force or comprehend the will of the people if can’t even grasp the basics of the cultural foundations of those populations. And yet the DoD and the individual service components have a strange on-again, off-again relationship with the understanding and instruction of culture. A BETTER PEACE welcomes Kerry Fosher, Lauren Mackenzie and Allison Abbe to the virtual studio to discuss the role of cultural programs in military training and their new book The Rise and Decline Of U.S. Military Culture Programs 2004 To 2020. The three join podcast editor Ron Granieri to look at how the services have created and re-created cultural training programs over and over again seemingly forgetting lessons learned time and again.

TRANSCRIPT: https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/wp-content/uploads/21-113-MESSAGE-IN-A-BOTTLE-REBUILDING-CULTURAL-CAPABILITIES-AGAIN-Transcript.pdf

THE PCS PENALTY AND THE ARMY FAMILY

“If mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.” It’s as outdated a saying as is the military’s impression of what a “normal” family looks like. Gone are the days of the all male force, with 2.5 kids and a stay at home mom in every government issued quarters. The types of families that make up the greater U.S. Army are far more diverse than 10-20 years ago. Dual income families are much closer to the norm and unfortunately the Army’s professional military education system and the moves associated with it force significant spouse unemployment. WAR ROOM welcomes back Paul Kearney to propose solutions to the system that aim to improve life at home, increase retention, and in turn maximize talent management.

MILITARY SOCIETY IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE: ANDRÉ CORVISIER (DUSTY SHELVES)

The historical profession in the mid-twentieth-century decisively shifted its focus to social and cultural frameworks, which seemingly did not fit with military history and its main interests in politics, organizations, and institutions. André Corvisier was among the first military historians to open the field to social and cultural history. A pioneer of quantitative and statistical […]

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: MORE THAN JUST TECHNOLOGY

A BETTER PEACE welcomes Gail Fisher and Joel Hillison into the studio to examine the DoD’s approach towards gaining and sustaining the competitive advantage over adversaries across the spectrum of competition. The DoD has no specific doctrine regarding this topic and all too often the response to the challenge falls to the acquisition community in […]

CHRONOS, KAIROS, AND THE USE OF TIME IN STRATEGY

In this War Room podcast, “Time as a Dimension of Strategy,” Joe Brooks and Doug Douds take a critical look at concepts that may too often be taken for granted in strategy – time and space. Drawing from philosophy, political science, and culture, the podcasters discuss a range of perspective on how time and space have defined and measured throughout history. How do our understandings of time shape our strategy? And how do we develop strategies that shape an environment occupied by those whose perspectives on time differ?

VALUING COST-CONSCIOUSNESS IN TODAY’S MILITARY CULTURE

cost-consciousness is not simply about cutting spending. Rather, it is about reducing excess and being a good steward of taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, the Department of Defense is not cost-conscious. Four years after the sequestration cuts of 2013, the Department of Defense must relearn a lesson which all frustrated dieters know well: unless desired values and […]

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