The Warfighter's Applications of Social Psychology in Future Conflict
Abstract
While the nature of war remains constant, the character of war is continuously changing in step with technological progress and political desires. The debate on the character of future warfare often times becomes mired as groups tend to categorize warfare by the type of the tactics that the belligerents use. Will the conflict of tomorrow be a conventional style of warfare between regional hegemons or will distributed forces be needed to conduct full spectrum operations against dispersed adversaries that operate from complex political and physical terrain? While the character of future warfare is important in order to properly man, train and equip tomorrow's armed forces to conduct operations within this wide spectrum of human interaction, predictions on the character of future war will only be as valid as the accuracy of the predictions of future technology and political will. This paper will argue that the key to successfully preparing for future warfare is not in accurately predicting the changing character of warfare, but it is in understanding how to resolve the conflicts that have and always will exist between the human wills. In analyzing this premise, one assumption will be made. That assumption is that the desire of the United States government is to conclude conflict with the peaceful resumption of politics. Using this assumption, this paper will start with an introduction to the current theories of conflict resolution within the science of social psychology. Then an examination will be made to compare the current United States Marine Corps methodology and mindset towards conflict resolution. From this analysis, this paper will propose that the Marine Corps doctrinal mindset that "the object of war is to impose our will on our enemy" is detrimental to the goal of returning an escalated situation to a peaceful end state.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA507433
Entities
People
- Eric W. Schaefer
Organizations
- Marine Corps University