Cultural and Religious Awareness: The Key to Analyzing and Combating the Relative Combat Power for Islamic-Based Terrorism
Abstract
Terrorism will never be eradicated; the best the Western world can do is manage it. The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) is a unique war because the targets are nonstate actors with no defined geographical boundaries. Moreover, this enemy holds very different beliefs -- and philosophy -- than the Western world. The approach suggested by the author to deal with this type of threat is fourfold. First, the United States must understand the issues that brought about such hatred against it by the terrorists. Second, the United States must conduct cultural awareness/cultural intelligence training for all military personnel who are deploying to combat the GWOT, and for all staff in the regional standing joint force headquarters. Third, the United States must make changes to its planning documents to include culture and religion as factors of Space, Force, and Relative Combat Power. To bring about unity of effort in this area, a greater emphasis must be placed on Interagency and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) cooperation. This cooperation will solve some of the short-term deficiencies of the U.S. fight against terrorism. Fourth, the United States must conduct aggressive "strategic communications" to deter future terrorist recruitment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 14, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA464220
Entities
People
- Muhammad M. Khan
Organizations
- Naval War College