Assessing the Strategic Impact of Service Culture on ...

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CHAPTER 2
CULTURAL TOPOGRAPHY
Cultural Topography and its attendant research method – <strong>the</strong> Cultural Mapping Exercise—were
designed by this author in partnership with a senior manager within <strong>the</strong> U.S. intelligence community. 88
The Cultural Topography method was forged within <strong>the</strong> spirit <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> strategic culture paradigm, but
narrowed and sharpened to fit <strong>the</strong> purposes <strong>of</strong> foreign policy practitioners. U.S. intelligence analysis,
including foreign policy, security, and political analysis has suffered from <strong>the</strong> lack <strong>of</strong> cultural inquiry and
discovery endemic to American life. The Cultural Topography framework was designed to remedy, in
some part, this debilitating analytic deficiency. To clarify terms: an amplified understanding <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
“cultural topography” <strong>of</strong> a particular region or actor set is <strong>the</strong> desired end state to which this approach
aspires. The Cultural Mapping Exercise is <strong>the</strong> method for achieving it:
[The Cultural Mapping Exercise] is designed to isolate and assess cultural factors at play
on issues <strong>of</strong> intelligence interest and to distinguish <strong>the</strong> degree to which those factors
influence decision making and outcomes. Mapping exercises done across time, spanning
multiple issues, and on diverse groups within a society may aid in understanding that
society’s “Cultural Topography.” 89
The version employed here is <strong>the</strong> result <strong>of</strong> our repeated application and refinement <strong>of</strong> this method over
<strong>the</strong> last six years. This approach has proven a useful and illuminating tool for intelligence analysts. It is
being exercised here for <strong>the</strong> purposes <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> strategist: ra<strong>the</strong>r than studying alien cultures, its lens is
being trained on our own. A strategist interested in ascertaining “fitness” for counterinsurgency within
his ranks would employ this method in its most robust form: conducting individual Cultural Mapping
Exercises across service cultures (Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps) bounded to <strong>the</strong> issue <strong>of</strong>
counterinsurgency practice and assessed across time. The pooled result would deliver a textured
“topography” <strong>of</strong> service orientations-- common ground, areas <strong>of</strong> likely push back, individual strengths,
and potentially debilitating cleavages-- within his strategic community on this issue. This <strong>the</strong>sis
represents one iteration <strong>of</strong> that process: <strong>the</strong> assessment <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> U.S. Marine Corps.
Strategists may use <strong>the</strong> insight derived from this process for a variety <strong>of</strong> purposes: assessing likely
resistance to norms changes, improving messaging strategies, smoothing inter-service tensions, or as
guidance toward <strong>the</strong> immediate task <strong>of</strong> matching security organizations to <strong>the</strong> operational set for which
<strong>the</strong>y are best suited. When Cultural Topography results indicate that a strong match is not possible, <strong>the</strong>
strategist may at <strong>the</strong> very least be apprised <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> friction he is likely to encounter when <strong>the</strong>
organization is placed in an uncomfortable service culture fit. Sometimes <strong>the</strong> key finding from a Cultural
88 The Cultural Topography method, including <strong>the</strong> Cultural Mapping Exercise was designed with Mat<strong>the</strong>w T. Berrett
during his tenure as <strong>the</strong> Near East South Asia Office Director at <strong>the</strong> Central Intelligence Agency. See Jeannie L.
Johnson and Mat<strong>the</strong>w T. Berrett, “Cultural Topography: A New Research Tool for Intelligence,” Studies in
Intelligence, Vol 55 No 2, June 2011, Center for <strong>the</strong> Study <strong>of</strong> Intelligence.
89 Johnson and Berrett, “Cultural Topography: A New Research Tool for Intelligence,” 2.
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