INTL420 Week 7
Discussion Board writing assignment for Week Seven
Q1: What is “strategic culture?” According to the authors for the week, what does strategic culture consist of?
Q2: How does China perceive itself? What threatens China’s national security in the eyes of its influential elites? How does China seek to address threats to China’s national security?
Q3: Norvell De Atkine writes, ” Arabic-speaking armies have been generally ineffective in the modern era,” and gives examples of outcomes from military confrontations with Iran, Western militaries, and Israel to support his claim.
Why does De Atkine believe the U.S. army, i.e. military, “has a poor legacy” in assessing the national character and culture of opposing forces? What evidence does he provide?
What cultural attributes of Arab armies does De Atkine believe affect combat performance? Provide your assessment of De Atkine’s claims. Are there any factors (political, economic, environment, etc,) not covered by De Atkine which might have significantly (or at least somewhat) impacted the outcomes of the military confrontations he uses to support his cultural attributes theory?
Q4: Describe the three perspectives of Indian strategic culture as outlined by Kanti Bajpai.
