6 x 9 paperback
272 pages
2021
PDF download
Audiobook

The Rise and Decline of U.S. Military Culture Programs, 2004-20

Edited by Kerry B. Fosher, PhD, and Lauren Mackenzie, PhD

DOI: 10.56686/9781732003187

 

ABOUT THE BOOK
This book compiles the insights and findings of some of the most determined and resourceful scientists, scholars, and practitioners engaged in the programs to inculcate the new capabilities in the early twenty-first century. The authors do not gloss over failures and dead ends. Rather, their expectation is that by presenting the bad with the good, they can help future generations engaged in the same task avoid their pitfalls and build on their work. More importantly, the authors hope that their writing might reach those who are still engaged in building cultural capabilities and that they will find encouragement to continue this essential work.

ABOUT THE EDITORS
Dr. Kerry B. Fosher is a sociocultural anthropologist whose work focuses on security organizations and their ability to integrate scientific knowledge and expertise. Within the Department of Defense (DOD), she has been the director of the U.S. Air Force cross-cultural competence project, the command social scientist for Marine Corps Intelligence Activity on Marine Corps Base Quantico, and the director of research for the Marine Corps’ Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning. She currently is the director of research for Marine Corps University. Prior to working with the DOD, Dr. Fosher was on the research faculty of the Dartmouth (now Geisel) School of Medicine in Hanover, New Hampshire, and a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Roscoe Martin Fund, and through numerous projects sponsored by the Marine Corps. She publishes and presents regularly on ethics and the integration of science in military organizations. Fosher earned her PhD in anthropology from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in New York State.

Dr. Lauren Mackenzie is a professor of military cross-cultural competence at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. She also chairs the Marine Corps University faculty council and serves as an adjunct professor of military/emergency medicine at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Mackenzie’s research interests revolve around the art and science of difficult conversations, and she has written a range of articles and book chapters devoted to such areas as end-of-life communication, the communication of respect, relationship repair strategies, and, most recently, the role of failure in education. She earned her MA and PhD in communication from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and has taught intercultural and interpersonal communication courses throughout the DOD during the past 12 years.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapters
1)  Big Battles, Small Victories: Personal Experience in Culture Wars, 2003–9 by Ben Connable, PhD
2)  On Becoming “Wise in the Ways of Others”: Lessons Learned from Integrating Culture into Professional Military Education Curriculum by Lauren Mackenzie, PhD
3)  From Aha Moments to Emerging Stories of the Good Old Days: Reflections from Many Years in a Fascinating Field by Susan Steen, PhD
4)  Surfing the Sine Wave of Military Culture Education by Angelle Khachadoorian, PhD
5)  The Company I Kept: Twenty Years at the Naval Postgraduate School by Anna Simons, PhD
6)  From Concept to Capability: Developing Cross-Cultural Competence through U.S. Air Force Education by Brian R. Selmeski, PhD
7)  Bridging the Social Science Research-to-Practice Gap by Allison Abbe, PhD
8)  A Few Things I Know about Culture Programs or Why Nothing Works by Kerry B. Fosher, PhD
9)  Alternative Perspectives: Launching and Running the Marine Corps’ Culture Center interviews with Jeffery Bearor and George Dallas

Conclusion
Appendix
Select Acronyms and Terms
Bibliography