Strategic Culture and a State’s Decision to Use Military Force: A Comparative Analysis of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran
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Cohen, Scott Allen
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Cohen, Scott Allen. 2022. Strategic Culture and a State’s Decision to Use Military Force: A Comparative Analysis of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Master's thesis, Harvard University Division of Continuing Education.Abstract
Research into strategic culture of a state is not currently conducted using a systematic framework. Even those sources which purport to provide such a framework often provide little more than a guideline as to what information should be gathered. This limits the generalizability of the conclusions reached as well as the comparability of case studies. Strategic culture research is also plagued by a difference in understanding as to what strategic culture can do. For Gray, strategic culture provides the context within which decisions are made. For Johnston, strategic culture can serve as an independent variable and the state’s use of force the dependent variable. For Johnston, though, the use of the term ‘behavior’ in most definitions creates a tautology as behavior cannot be included in both the independent and dependent variables. This thesis uses a case study approach to collect information on the strategic culture of Israel and Iran. Following Johnston, strategic culture is the independent variable and the decision to develop nuclear weapons is the dependent variable. The information is collected using a framework developed within the thesis. Although the strategic culture is different in Israel and Iran, both states chose to develop nuclear weapons. The difference in strategic culture, however, led to differences in how the states proceeded with their respective programs and consequently to differences in the responses of the international community. Strategic culture is not epiphenomenal to the determination of state interests but rather is a priori – it comes before the determination of state interest and while the decision to use force may be the same between states with different strategic cultures, those decisions are implemented and interpreted differently.Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAACitable link to this page
https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37372500
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