Routledge Handbook of Strategic Culture

11 American Strategic Culture in the Era of Great Power Competition¹

Jeannie L. Johnson

DOI: 10.4324/9781003010302-14

Introduction

The field of strategic culture examines the ways in which national public culture and the various organizational cultures of a country’s defense, intelligence, and diplomatic institutions impact the formation of its foreign and security policy. The national culture of the United States combines features of identity, preferred templates for action, distinctive values, and perceptions of the world shaped by the American experience, and the subculture of the US military expands upon and reinforces many dominant American traits while introducing some of its own. This combination of strategic culture traits exists ...