Strategic Culture – A Complex Model for a Complex Concept

Speaker: Dr. Larry Kuznar (NSI, Inc.)

Date: 19 November 2024

Speaker Session Summary

In recent years, strategic culture has regained attention as US policymakers work to integrate deterrence strategies with allies and partners while understanding the strategic cultures of adversaries, like China and Russia. Dr. Kuznar explored the components of an actor’s strategic culture, how it can be measured, and its influence on strategic behavior. He described strategic culture as a complex system that enables researchers and national security professionals to develop testable hypotheses. These hypotheses can be validated or nullified, providing insights into critical factors such as actors likely redlines and their responses when those lines are crossed. 

The concept of strategic culture was formally defined during the Cold War, as the United States sought to understand the Soviet Union’s worldview to prevent nuclear escalation. But the study of strategic culture-like concepts goes back to antiquity, to include Sun Tzu and Thucydides. Dr. Kuznar highlighted examples of earlier examinations, such as Tacitus’s characterization of Germanic tribes in 98 CE and Mead Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, published in 1946. This historical context underscores how military leaders and scholars considered strategic culture long before it was formally recognized as a topic for academic research. 

Dr. Kuznar explained that an actor’s strategic culture significantly influences its strategic behavior, which he described as the independent variable of an actor’s interests. Strategic behavior manifests in actions such as economic trade, sanctions, and military operations. Referring to a DTRA study, Dr. Kuznar identified four key variables that shape strategic culture: identity, values, norms, and perceptions. He demonstrated how these variables interact within a complex model to form an actor’s strategic culture and influence strategic behavior. Using Russia as an example, he illustrated how Russian values—such as nationalism and militarism—reinforce its desired national identity of a “greater Russia.” These values shape Russian perceptions, such as perceived vulnerabilities, and norms, such as a willingness to engage in mass attacks or attritional warfare.  

Speaker Session Recording

Briefing Materials

U.S. Army War College Podcast: Exploring Strategic Culture > US Army War College – Strategic Studies Institute > Recent Publications

NSI Strategic Culture Report: Strategic Culture – Its history, issues, and complexity | NSI

Biography: Dr. Lawrence A. Kuznar (Director of Cultural Sciences, NSI, Inc., Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Purdue University-Fort Wayne) Dr. Kuznar conducts anthropological research relevant to national security issues such as strategic competition and counterterrorism. His research ranges from advanced statistical and geographical modeling of social instability to discourse analysis of adversaries including North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, and ISIS (Daesh) to provide leading indicators of intent and behavior. He has developed computational models of genocide in Darfur and tribal factionalism in New Guinea, mathematical models of inequality and conflict, and integrated socio-cultural databases for geo-spatial analysis of illicit nuclear trade and bioterrorism. Dr. Kuznar’s research has been funded by academic sources, Strategic Multi-Layer Analysis, Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), the Human Social Cultural Behavior (HSCB) modeling program of the Department of Defense, and by the US Army Corps of Engineers. He has also served on the HSCB Technical Progress Evaluation panel and a National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) net assessment panel. He conducted extensive field research among the Aymara of southern Peru and with the Navajo in the American southwest. Dr. Kuznar has published and edited several books and numerous peer-reviewed articles in journals such as American Anthropologist, Current Anthropology, Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, North Korean Review, Social Science Computer Review, Political Studies, Field Methods, and Journal of Anthropological Research. Dr. Kuznar earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Anthropology, and a M.S. in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences from Northwestern University. His B.A. in Anthropology is from Penn State.