Cultural Turn and Its Influence on Military Strategy

The cultural turn in the war on terror has been the reason behind many new military programs, new military training, and the way military strategies are planned. The cultural turn is the idea that having cultural knowledge of the enemy is crucial to military practice and strategy. This cultural turn has led to changes in the infrastructure of the military, and how money is used. The military now relies on think tanks, journals, and specialists aiming at producing cultural knowledge of the enemy. In these efforts, the military has produced the Phraselator and the Culture Smart Card to give to military personnel to aid them in the war on terror.
Many believe that there should be a relationship between the military and anthropologists in order
Through the information the soldiers were given on the Culture Smart Cards, and with technology like the Phraselator, it is believed that there will be less friction between the soldiers and the civilians who live in these occupied zones. In his essay though, Gusterson warns of the difference between negative and positive modalities. Negative modalities would be killing, torture, and bombings, while a positive modalities would be the Culture Smart Card and Phraselator. Although while just examining the tactics of both modalities and seeing one being ‘good’ while the other is ‘bad’, both are modes of control and dominance, only one relies on respect and
This cultural turn has also led anthropologists to change their work to prevent it being used by the military. Anthropologists may now refrain from studying the roles men and women take up within the household, to now focusing on the responsibilities of children within the same community, in hopes that the military does not use their work for training. While some may argue that these anthropologists should use their information to help fight the war on terror, these anthropologists still have the same goal as the military: prevent as many casualties as we