Military Cultural Characteristics

Human beings are a social species that relies heavily on human interaction throughout their daily lives. There are roughly six billion people on this earth, and those human beings inhabit one hundred and ninety six countries. The varying countries have developed their own customs, languages, values, music, and style that give them their own identity, or “culture.” According to the Oxford dictionary, culture is defined as “the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society [1].” An understanding of the meaning of culture and its characteristics provides the foundation to better comprehend specific cultures. By exploring a country’s cultural identity, one can gain a better understanding of a country’s values and viewpoints within a global context. Through an exploration of culture and its characteristics as well as the specific culture of Ukraine, it can be argued that the current conflict in Ukraine could potentially become an area of conflict for the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The Department of the Army (2014) defines culture as a “Web of meaning shared by members of a particular society or group within a society” (p. 3-1). In a previous version of Field Manual (FM) 3-24 the Department of the Army (2006) defines culture as “A system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another” (p. 3-6). Culture can mean many different things to many different people and societies. To put one definition on it will not work. Over the next couple of pages an attempt will be made to explain culture further as well as consider the culture of Mexico by looking at the Mexican physical geography, military conflict history and their impact on the

Cultural characteristics make up an individual’s cultural identity. Cultures have values, traditions, and norms that are the basic

The military is an organization that is structured through a hierarchical system. Which is why the egalitarian culture would not be effective. There is order in the military and their structure is heavily reliant on the hierarchical culture. An egalitarian culture is chaos compared to the structure of the military. In the military there are ranks that the personnel earn, and with each rank there ensues more responsibility.

In this Paper my goal is to analyze the culture of Afghanistan and provide cultural awareness of the region. But what is culture? Culture, as defined by Webster's Dictionary, is “the arts and manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively". However, is that really what defines a culture? Or is there more depth to the matter altogether? The characteristics of culture are learned, shared, symbols, integrated, and dynamic. Essentially, culture is learned; it is not something we are born with. It is also shared, meaning that collectively as a society we practice social norms; which enables us to generally predict another’s behavior. Symbols have meaning and that meaning is derivative of the culture that we are exposed to. The swastika, for instance, is an ancient symbol that is sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism but in western culture represents Nazi Germany. Culture is integrated, various aspects of culture are all interwoven in some way. Dynamic, culture is an ever-changing entity; through travel the media, and interaction with other nations, cultures are constantly influencing one another.

Understanding a country’s culture as it pertains to military operations is highly important in the modern era. Dictionary.com defines culture as “the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group”. There are many examples throughout history that show the negative consequences of ignoring or misunderstanding the cultures of other countries. The most recent example is our long sustained operations in the Middle East. We have operated in the Middle East for the better part of two and a half decades. Through our own successes and failures, it is obvious how important cultural awareness can be. The mistakes we have made have created more animosity towards our military and our country in general. Over the last decade, our government has worked continuously to understand and teach those lessons to our service members. Through those efforts, we have been able to win over many of the hearts and minds that we lost during the early part of the 1990’s and 2000’s. Continuing these practices in the future, with countries such as Russia, will allow us to overcome many of the mistakes and problems we have encountered in the past.

3, Chapter 3: The Need for Cultural Awareness states, "The success of US military operations calls for American military members to become experts in not only the culture of their adversaries, but also in the culture of their allies, civilian counterparts, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations, and others." From my experience, this concept is entirely accurate. Since working with NATO, I needed to adjust my styles of leadership and communication to get the mission accomplished. I was forced to learn different approaches to situations because each culture is different. Another concept which helped me with these adjustments was the Twelve Domains of Culture.

“Culture is seen as that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs and any capabilities and habits acquired by a person as a member of society” (Adler 18). Cultural awareness means developing compassion and understanding of another ethnic group. Soldiers must be cognizant of the importance of cultural awareness due to the Army mission of supporting national policies and interests. This means a soldier must be ready to be a part of a globally reactionary force and ready to engage with people of different cultures and customs. This research paper will provide soldiers with an understanding that will allow them to learn about all aspects of culture abroad and how those cultural awareness will play an important role into the tactical application of the operating environment. This paper will focus on the country of Syria and cover the following areas:

There are many laity use of the word culture that gets thrown around in day-to-day conversation amongst our peers. Culture is used to define certain aspects of our lives and how we live on a daily basis. There are some that believe that they do not possess a culture. There are others who feel that we all live our own individual unique culture in our lives. However, being that culture is such a broad subject, the only way to define it is to operationalize its context and attempt to try and understand it based on a universal definition. Sergiovanni and Corbally’s (1986) definition of culture includes a system of values, symbols, and shared meanings in a group that includes embodying these values, symbols, and shared meanings in ritualize practice. Using this particular definition of culture, the small island of Okinawa is enriched with it. Their way of day-to-day lifestyle, geographical terrain, as well as their military history can all be analyzed through their culture as well as provide information in terms of our current military jargon for the benefit of the United States Army.

There are many laity use of the word culture that gets thrown around in day-to-day conversation amongst our peers. Culture is used to define certain aspects of our lives and how we live on a daily basis. There are some that believe that they do not possess a culture. There are others who feel that we all live our own individual unique culture in our lives. However, being that culture is such a broad subject, the only way to define it is to operationalize its context and attempt to try and understand it based on a universal definition. Sergiovanni and Corbally’s (1986) definition of culture includes a system of values, symbols, and shared meanings in a group that includes embodying these values, symbols, and shared meanings in ritualize practice. Using this particular definition of culture, the small island of Okinawa is enriched with it. Their way of day-to-day lifestyle, geographical terrain, as well as their military history can all be analyzed through their culture as well as provide information in terms of our current military jargon for the benefit of the United States Army.

As I attempt to tease out a personal definition of culture based on my own experiences and various readings this semester, I select a few common themes that bare significance in my conceptualization of culture. Beliefs, values, social constructs, are some of the concepts used in many of the definitions of culture.

By birth, people do not know values, principles and beliefs that the culture has adopted. Over childhood and throughout life, people learn about cultures and practices. Second, all cultures are shared, and are passed on to others. Learning happens through sharing and people actively share the beliefs through various outlets. This involves interactions among members of a society. Third, all cultures are based on symbols – symbolism is an essential element of the identity of the culture. Symbols are also learnt and passed from one to another within a culture. Fourth, the culture is integrated into the day – to – day lives of the members and becomes a part of how the individuals define themselves. Finally, cultures are dynamic in nature and constantly evolve with practices and rituals, and habits.

The term culture can be defined as “the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from others” (Hofstede & Hofstede & Minkov, 2010). Every culture has their own social norms and traditions that they follow. According to Spencer-Oatey (2012) there are three fundamental levels within the concept of culture. The first level is ‘Observable artifacts’, which are the physical appearance such as dress code and their behavior (Schein 1990). The second level, which is ‘values’, is their beliefs and social standards. These lead to the third level ’basic underlying assumptions’. This is the way that people think and feel. (Spencer-Oatey, 2012)

Culture is a combination of many aspects of life that have been passed down for generation. Customs, beliefs, values and behaviors that become more specified to specific groups that tend to mimic themselves within a group are the broad range themes that come up when one discusses culture. Culture can exist on many different planes simultaneously. Culture is subjective and the way in which specific cultures are defined changes constantly. Researchers Kroeber and Kluckhohn state that “Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other as conditioning elements of further action.” (1952, p. 181) This description of culture largely aligns with generally accepted definitions of culture but briefly considers that culture can also be a product of action. I believe that culture is grounded in traditions of the past but suggest that it could not exist without the continued evolution of the key elements that define the concept. For the purpose of this paper I will describe culture as not only the experiences that came before but the enduring and modifiable traits that allow culture to be completely unique

“There are many things about humans that are unique. But perhaps the most extraordinary characteristic is our capacity to conceptualize the world and to communicate those conceptions symbolically” (Monaghan & Just, 2000, p.34). Every person has a unique perspective and definition of culture, depending on the place they were born, and external factors that shape their way to see the world. “Each person is simultaneously like some other people, like all other people, and like no other person” (Kluckhohn, p.40). This makes the definition of culture, a multiple-meaning concept. Before taking the CCS100 class, I defined culture as a group of costumes and ideas that defines the behavior of a group of people who share not only a geographical and temporal location but also festivities, holidays and other institutions. Currently, after having read and listened to many articles, lectures and opinions, I have a deeper understanding of the meaning of culture, and also of the influence that this one has over the decisions we take on a daily basis.