ABSTRACT
The aim of this article is to indicate what have been considered to be effective
counter-insurgency strategies and tactics employed against an opponent from a
specific cultural grouping. Western military forces are currently involved in oper-
ations in Iraq and have security interests in several other Arab countries. These oper-
ations and interests are not suddenly going to disappear; they will be ongoing for a
considerable period of time. This being so, there is a case for the development of
an increased level of understanding of Arab culture (where culture ‘describes an attri-
bute or quality internal to a group . . . a fairly stable set of taken-for-granted assumptions, shared beliefs, meanings and values that form a kind of backdrop for action’).1
Of course, to bring such a variable as ‘culture’ into the realm of political science and,
more specifically, into the study of strategy and, indeed, military tactics, is always
fraught with some danger; but it can prove useful. For the understanding of cultural
affinities is a form of understanding, whether it is based on rational scientific prin-
ciples or not. As no less an authority than Bernard Brodie once put it, ‘good strategy
assumes good anthropology and good sociology’.2 If Western military forces are
going to continue their involvement in Arab countries, and wish both to attract
support and defeat enemies, then some concept of the cultural nuances displayed in
these arenas will prove valuable.
