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Articles

Shaping and measuring military culture development: a case study of the defence education enhancement program

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Abstract

Is it possible to shape military culture to develop interoperability? The need for interoperability of forces was explored academically during the first period of post-Cold War NATO enlargement. But in the context of contemporary military missions and “civilizational” competition, “intellectual” interoperability becomes the most important feature of a reformed military culture. This article looks at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO’s) Defence Education Enhancement Program (DEEP) as a means of transferring norms and values, and proposes ways to measure the process of integration and military culture development. This program is central to a process of cultivation and development of military culture among new and aspiring NATO members. DEEP performance measurement offers the opportunity not only to measure success, but also to gauge the rate and degree of attainment of norms and values that shape a new military culture among post-Soviet forces. This article discusses how Euro-Atlantic partners can more effectively address the reform needs of new-NATO, Partnership for Peace (PfP) partners and non-aligned countries.

Résumé

Est-il possible de façonner la culture militaire pour développer l’interopérabilité? La nécessité d’une interopérabilité des forces a été explorée dans le milieu universitaire au cours de la première période d’élargissement de l’OTAN de l’après-guerre froide. Dans le cadre de missions militaires contemporaines et de la concurrence « civilisationnelle », l’interopérabilité « intellectuelle » devient la caractéristique la plus importante d’une culture militaire réformée. Cet article examine le Programme d’éducation de défense élargi (PEDE) l'Organisation du Traité de l'Atlantique Nord (OTAN) comme un moyen de transférer les normes et les valeurs, et propose des moyens pour mesurer le processus d’intégration et le développement de la culture militaire. Ce programme est essentiel à un processus de développement et d’entretien de la culture militaire chez les nouveaux et les futurs membres de l’OTAN. La mesure du rendement PEDE offre non seulement la possibilité de mesurer le succès, mais aussi de mesurer le taux et le degré de réalisation des normes et des valeurs qui façonnent une nouvelle culture militaire entre les forces post-soviétiques. Cet article explique comment les partenaires euro-atlantiques peuvent répondre plus efficacement aux besoins de réforme de la nouvelle OTAN, des partenaires du Partenariat pour la paix (PpP) et des pays non-alignés.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Although such a conclusion would be disputed in the context of our argument here in Cooper (Citation2005). For Cooper, the world is divided between post-modern (predominantly Western and neo-liberal democratic), modern (authoritarian) and pre-modern (tribal) societies. In this case, the level of organization may in certain societies entail a qualitative label that may put cultures in opposition.

2. This thesis seems to have been embraced by the current Kremlin ideologues, as evidenced by references to differing “civilizations” expressed in the February 2013 Russian National Security Strategy.

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