ABSTRACT

War as it is practiced and armies as institutions are expressions of the complex of behaviors that make up a culture. Certainly, the physical realities of biology, physics – as well as the nature of the adversary – shape and refine the particular practice of war, but more than anything else it is the value system of culture that gives definition to the craft of war on the field of battle. Technology plays a role, yet technology does not configure the battlefield; rather, culturally valued selections determine the art and exercise of war.