Veterans That Have Been Deployed to Afghanistan - Dissertation Example

Complexity theories require that conflicts between organizations are complex systems because they involve interactions between organizations, individuals, and within organizations. Applying military and complexity theories it becomes obvious that cultural awareness and skills are important for military success. Cultural awareness is important for gaining an information advantage over the enemies and for simplifying the complex nature of conflicts with foreigners. 

The purpose of the study is to identify the gaps, if any, between cultural training and practical experience. This study will therefore conduct a qualitative study in which 8 female and 8 male vets recently returned from deployment in Afghanistan are interviewed about their pre-deployment military cultural training and their subsequent interactions with Afghanis. The results of those interviews will be analyzed and reported in this study. Implications for future military cultural training and a possible program will be discussed.

Table of Contents Abstract 2 II. A Review of Literature 11 I. Introduction A. Justification The Global War on Terrorism, now known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), has now passed the 11-year mark. So far more than 1.7 million U.S. military personnel have been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and a number of U.S. bases globally (Mathewson, 2012). Deployment to OCO destinations is typically much longer than deployment in previous wars and conflicts (Mathewson, 2012). Therefore the military’s relationship with the civilian population is arguably a large part of the OCO experience.

Feichtinger and Gauster (2008) argue that no international crisis can be managed without the cooperation and engagement of the civilian population. Cultural training programs within the US military have therefore become a part of the defense preparedness initiative (Abbe & Gouge, 2012). As reported by the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL), the army’s highest goal is to “win over” civilian populations (p.1). According to Gentile (2009), The U.S. has now adopted what is termed population-centric counterinsurgency (COIN) as the new method of war and military training.