Deck 5: Strategic Culture, Dmitry Dima Adamsky

Question 1

According to the synthetic definition of 'strategic culture' offered in this chapter, strategic culture is a set of shared values, norms, beliefs, assumptions, and written, oral, formal, and informal narratives that shape the collective identity of a nation or other political grouping.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Strategic culture is a useful addition to realist theories for all the following reasons, *except*…

A) strategic culture can explain counterintuitive and puzzling strategic behaviour, which appears dysfunctional, ineffective, and self-defeating.
B) strategic culture can explain differences in the way state and non-state actors respond to similar threats or opportunities.
C) strategic culture demonstrates that structural and material factors are the key variables for explaining or predicting behaviour on the world stage.
D) strategic culture can explain differences that emerge in a comparative context, such as between different states.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Alastair Iain Johnston (1995) and Colin Gray (1999c) began an unresolved debate over whether…

A) culture is a cause that explains variations in strategy (Johnston 1995) or a context-a sort of lens that gives strategic meaning to various internal and external decisions and developments (Gray 1999c).
B) culture can be empirically evaluated (Johnston 1995) or not (Gray 1999c).
C) culture is a product of modernity (Johnston 1995) or dates to antiquity (Gray 1999c).
D) All the given answers are correct.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

All the following are examples of nonmaterial sources of strategic culture, *except*…

A) political culture.
B) civil-military relations.
C) physical and political geography.
D) norms and values pertaining to government authority.

Question 5

The fourth wave of scholarship on strategic culture raises each of the following critiques about existing research, *except*…

A) much of the strategic culture research is subjective, intuitive, and unsystematic.
B) there is a tendency to treat actors as homogeneous cultural monoliths, rather than identifying and explaining how different subcultures compete or cooperate to form a single strategic community.
C) much of the existing research is focused on drivers and conditions of cultural change; there is insufficient attention to the phenomenon of cultural continuity.
D) existing research tends to focus on studies of single cultural settings; there is insufficient comparative research.

Question 6

There is no evidence that the concept of 'strategic culture' existed prior to the cold war.

Question 7

According to this chapter, changes in strategic culture are rare, but can occur in which of the following ways?

A) Through the addition of a new set of norms and practices to the existing strategic culture
B) Incrementally over a great many years as a response to gradual shifts in the strategic environment
C) Through shifts that are the product of a deliberate decision by leadership
D) All the given answers are correct.

Question 8

According to this chapter, _____ thinking tends to be linear-seeking direct cause and effect factors-rather than holistic and as a result is less strategic and long term in its perception of threats.

A) American
B) Chinese
C) Israeli
D) Russian

Question 9

The second wave of strategic culture scholarship occurred alongside the rise of Marxism as a field of international relations theory; consequently, it took seriously the impact of domestic factors on security, including culture, and worked these into a coherent research program.

Question 10

In the aftermath of the al-Qaida terror attacks, third-generation scholars began applying the strategic culture paradigm to non-state actors, especially jihadists, exploring how cultural factors accounted for their modes of operation and theories of victory.