Military Review English Edition September-October 2014 | Page 85

THE HUMAN DOMAIN

In short, if the Army is truly serious about understanding human interaction and its relationship with warfare
then there has to be a concerted effort to reach out to
these other fields of study that specialize in humanness
in a more hands-on way.
This process can be expected not only to introduce the
new, but also revitalize the old by enhancing and broadening research done in traditional fields such as history.
The combination of such will build deeper, broader, and
more sophisticated understanding to problem sets associated with the causes and resolutions of war.
While this concept appears sound, the problem arises when the Army, Marine Corps, and USSOCOM attempt to sell this idea to those who determine strategy
and ultimately funding. Relatively cheap social science
research does not have the same sexy allure as building
billion-dollar planes in congressional districts. Help is
most sorely needed, but the Army has not helped itself
persuading policy makers of social science value to the
military.
Therein lies the squishy part. Neither the
Department of Defense, nor the rest of the national
security establishment, has had a good track record

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kleynia R. McKnight

warfare is, from ancient battles of note to those occurring today in Afghanistan, Syria, and elsewhere.
However, most of this writing appears to be mainly concerned with details of tactics and strategy (and
sometimes logistics), not the study of warfare from a
social science perspective, the underlying factors of
which would be better explained by intellectual constructs relying upon cultural anthropology, psychology,
and sociology.
Consequently, if we are to invest in the idea of the
human domain, a vast idea in and of itself, then the
scope of research and scholarship that the Army uses
must expand concurrently to encompass the vastness
to some degree. Consonant with the above, the incorporation of fields other than history—psychology, anthropology, sociology, and the like—will open myriad
new and insightful doors to ideas about warfare and the
human domain.
We must break away from the familiar think tanks
and perfunctory advice from complacent experts regurgitating thread-worn theories and statistics. Instead,
we must bring new fields of knowledge and information that draw upon diverse experiences and data sets.

U.S. Army Maj. Nancy Lewis passes gifts to Afghan women present during the ceremony held in celebration of International Women’s Day
at the Shahrara Garden in Kabul, 11 March 2013.
MILITARY REVIEW  September-October 2014

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