Cultural Implications for Strategy and Analysis
IWP 640
Four credits
This course explores why and how culture matters in intelligence analysis and political decisionmaking, what types of cultural factors affect political life, and how the relative effect of such factors can be evaluated. There is considerable evidence that politics cannot be divorced from culture, from considerations of values that transcend the calculations of Realpolitik. This course is designed to help students understand the "otherness" of other cultures and offer an overview of major political and cultural indicators involved in assessing the policies of (primarily) non-Western states.
"It is impossible to understand the current national security challenges facing the United States without appreciating the role of culture in counterinsurgency and the fight against terrorism."
-Dr. Juliana Pilon
Semester Available
Spring Semester
Principal Professor
Juliana Geran Pilon 
