The cultural turn and
late modern war
The supposed success of cultural awareness, cultural intelligence and
culture-centric warfare in Iraq have been personalized through the iconic figure of General David Petraeus.
But what lies behind the cultural turn are a series of other figures - including T.E. Lawrence - and a highly partial appropriation of the humanities and social sciences (especially anthropology) that continues the Orientalism that underwrites the ‘war on terror’ and perpetuates the colonial present. The cultural turn also provides new opportunities for private contractors, and so extends the neo-liberal armature of late modern war. And it reassures the American public that the US military (if not the US government) has learned from the horrors of Abu Ghraib. The new counterinsurgency doctrine uses biomedical metaphors to promote US intervention as essentially therapeutic - a gesture which is also therapeutic for the American public, if not for the people of Iraq.
