The culture of military organizations

An edited collection of essays, in this book Peter Mansoor and noted historian Williamson Murray offer a history of organisational military culture. Culture, the editors argue, is perhaps ‘the most important’ factor ‘involved in military effectiveness’ (pg. 3). Divided into 4 parts, The culture of military organizations provides two chapters exploring theoretical frameworks of culture and military organizations and a range of accompanying case studies exploring how militaries (including maritime forces and air forces) came to think in certain ways and how this contributed to their approach to warfare. Part II, which covers land forces, includes case studies of Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army of the Tennessee, the German Army (1871-1945), the British Army, the Imperial Japanese Army, the Israeli Defence Forces, and the US Army (1973-2017). The Culture of Military Organizations reminds readers to consider how culture has, or continues to, affect the military capability and effectiveness of their force (positively and negatively), and to achieve maximum value it should be read in conjunction with Mansoor and Murray’s Grand Strategy and Military Alliances (2016).