REDEFINING Strategic Culture
Re Defining Strategic Culture MA Thesis Graham 28 September 2011
PowerPoint Presentation Defence Presentation
2 May 2012 - it is almost a month since the defence and still no sign of the required revisions. I met with the senior advisor on the 12th (he was in a delicate state, apparently from celebrating a hockey victory the night before) and asked for a copy of his notes, but he refused. Said he preferred to send everything in track changes and would I please send the version of the thesis that was submitted last April as he could not recall asking for all the changes that were in the September version. Madness. So everything he asked for, the April version and all his track changes requirements that led to the April submuission, was sent to him on the 15th as soon as I was back home from the defence trip to Vancouver. My deadline for the revisions is 17 May. I suggest he is cutting things pretty close. If all else fails I will correct the technical flaws in some of the footnotes in the April submission and send that in to the university with a summary of the events that followed (or failed to follow) the defence. Enough is enough. When the thesis is finally published, I will revisit the subject as a book that will allow me to incorporate all that they found interesting and worthwhile but excessive for a mere MA thesis. I already have a publisher.
Defence took place 10 April at the Vancouver Public Library. Pass with revisions.
Sadly the primary advisor did not recall requesting all the changes he recommended following the April submission, implying that the document under review was significantly changed from the one he approved for defence. He made some reference to a 2008 version, which would be difficult as the first draft was not complete until the fall of 2010. Madness. In any event, I have had to send him the April version so he can determine necessary revisions for completion by 17 May 2012. He wants his track changes from the November 2012 submission too. Doesn't he keep any files on still active students?
When the dust settles on this and the thesis is published I shall revisit and expand on research in order to write a more comprehensive exploration of the concept in a full book. With pictures even!
15 March - Defence is to be 10 or 13 April, in Vancouver, B.C. - FINALLY!
29 February 2012 and still no word on a defence date. Very frustrating. I don't think I will make the May graduation. It's become far more complicated than it needs to be. DND, for reasons that will come out in a book someday, delayed and obstructed research and writing time for a couple of years. Senior faculty advisor, in the meantime, has retired. The new chair of the department was one of my committee members but is engaged in a peculiar power struggle with my retired faculty advisor. He has, as a result, quit my faculty committee. I am now waiting for a retired prof to organize a defence with committee members spread between two countries, and three universities. Given how long it has been since I did much of the reading and research, the defence may very well require that I redo most of the reading. Not a happy prospect. Suggestions are certainly welcome. It would be a shame to come this far and have it all end on a whimper, weeks short of publication. Sigh.
25 November 2011 - Happy Day, the Dean has intervened and the defence will take place early in the New Year. Finally!
24 October - Submitted thesis 28 September after almost a year of revisions.
Thanks again Calvin.
"Strategic Culture is the shared, social, economic, and political values and priorities of a society, relevant to security preferences, as historically shaped and embedded by repeated interaction with and adaptation to their prevailing strategic and bio-physical environment."
Revised Abstract:
Strategic Culture has appealed to political theorists since Jack Snyder first introduced the concept in his 1977 work “The Soviet Strategic Culture: Implications for Limited Nuclear Operations.”*
Researchers theorize that aspects of a society’s culture can influence security policy and practice but have had difficulty producing a reliable definition. This could be resolved by establishing a consistent relationship between specific aspects of culture and distinctive security preferences as they relate to an independent causal factor.
This thesis proposes to establish a direct, causal relationship between a society’s dominant strategic and biophysical environment, and the aspects of their culture that influence security priorities and preferences, as the basis for a redefinition of the concept.
There is a human preference for collective security that requires collaborative interaction with predominating, physical resources, and strategic challenges. Societies, therefore, develop a Strategic Culture, or shared, core, political, social, and economic values, and security preferences and priorities specific to their unique environment.
* Snyder, J. (1977). The Soviet Strategic Culture: Implications for Limited Nuclear Operations, RAND Corporation.
In memoriam - Thanks Professor Straker
