Strategic Culture: From Clausewitz to Constructivism

Abstract

This paper charts the evolution of the theory of strategic culture through several generations of scholarship and explores contemporary arguments about the role of culture in shaping national security policy. The paper devotes special attention to policies related to weapons of mass destruction and threat assessment. Key questions include: Do cultural theories provide useful explanations of national security policy? Is strategic culture "semi-permanent," as most of its supporters suggest, or can it evolve over time? And how universal is strategic culture? The essay concludes that while constructivism has generated new attention to ideational foundations of national security policy behavior , there remains substantial room for refinement of the research program. INTRODUCTION Cultural approaches to strategic studies have existed in various forms for hundreds of