The Marines, Counterinsurgency, and Strategic Culture

Jeannie Johnson has written a wonderful book about America’s premier war-fighting organization, the US Marine Corps. The book is so well written it may be in danger of being categorized as readable social science. Persuasively, but not uncritically, Dr. Johnson applies the latest methods from cultural analysis to the performance of the Corps, especially in the context of the war in Iraq. This book is a product of tough love–faults may be tolerated, but they are not simply passed over expediently in silence.

Johnson provides a comprehensive overview of the history and evolution of the culture of the Marine Corps, with an appropriate focus on its struggle to achieve and maintain an independent identity separate from the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy.

This is a timely and much-needed ‘how to’ manual for the study of strategic culture. In this rigorous book, Johnson introduces a new method of cultural mapping, which she uses to show how identity and norms shaped the US Marine approach to counterinsurgency. An essential read for anybody interested in military culture and modern conflict.

Jeannie Johnson is an assistant professor at Utah State University. She was previously an intelligence officer and government consultant before pursuing her doctorate. She is the co-editor of Strategic Culture and Weapons of Mass Destruction.