Military culture and change: How a NATO workshop emphasizes the imperative of critical paradigms

The study of military culture surged in the 1990s as military organizations faced human rights challenges in their home nations and while deployed abroad. In recent years, amid heightened public pressure to stem gender-based violence and other forms of systemic misconduct, military culture change has taken on increasing importance. The discussion begins with an overview of the literature that has shaped understandings of military culture and culture change.

The analysis presented in this article engages with the academic literature to examine key insights emerging from a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) research workshop.

The analysis suggests three priority research themes to enhance knowledge about military culture change: the critical relevance of root causes and intersectionality to understanding cultural challenges; interpreting resistance to change as connected to operational effectiveness, military identity, and the concept of buy-in; and reframing research to include critical, transformative, and trauma-informed paradigms.

Engagement with critical paradigms to address individual, organizational, and structural factors shaping the dynamics of military culture is crucial for transformative culture change. As military organizations move forward to better the experiences of their personnel, the analysis underscores the need to strengthen critical knowledge and capability across policy and research communities in partnership with those who will be impacted by the research and the knowledge that these processes create and embed within military culture.