Routledge Handbook of Strategic Culture

10 Strategic Culture at the Non-State Actor Level

Edward D. Last

DOI: 10.4324/9781003010302-12

Introduction

The concept of strategic culture emerged during the Cold War to analyze the ideational basis of states’ strategic behavior, beginning with the Soviet Union,¹ followed by the United States² and a host of other countries. More recently strategic culture has been applied to supranational actors such as the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, sub-state actors such as the different branches of the US military,³ including the Marines,⁴ and violent non-state actors (VNSAs), particularly Al-Qaeda⁵ as well as Islamic State.⁶ Your author’s own work compares the strategic culture of Al-Qaeda with that of its franchise, Al-Qaeda ...