In response to the irregular warfare challenges facing the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2005, General James Mattis--then commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command--established a new Marine Corps cultural initiative. The goal was simple: teach Marines to interact successfully with the local population in areas of conflict. The implications, however, were anything but simple: transform an elite military culture founded on the principles of locate, close with, and destroy the enemy into a culturally savvy Marine Corps.
Culture in Conflict: Irregular Warfare, Culture Policy, and the Marine Corps examines the conflicted trajectory of the Marine Corps efforts to institute a radical culture policy into a military organization that is structured and trained to fight conventional wars. More importantly, however, it is a compelling book about Americas shifting military identity in a new world of unconventional warfare.
