Cultural intelligence and conflict ethnography: The importance of the anthropological knowledge for military advisors in fighting international violent extremist groups

Abstract

The aim of this paper is twofold. That is, to present the Cultural Intelligence. A new method of anthropological analysis on the battlefield to support military intelligence in order to study subversive, terrorist and insurgent groups. Moreover, it is to define a new professional figure in military units and staffs: the ethnographer of war. A professional who, necessarily, must have a great military background and who must know how to apply the typical methodology of the ethnographic gathering to the analysis of unconventional military organizations that work to destabilize a state. A research that, therefore, has the ambition to give a small contribution to the technicians of the sector with the awareness that, in order to face the wars of the future, there will be an increasing need for an anthropological perspective.