Swords and Emotions: The American Civil War and Society-centric Strategy

Abstract

State and non-state actors, from Hizbullah and the Islamic State (ISIS) to Russia and China, challenge Western nations with society-centric strategies. These employ wide-ranging tools – military force, economics, cyber and information – mainly to manipulate their rival societies’ collective emotions and hence their behaviour. Western countries have not always performed well in response, and a better understanding of such warfare and strategy is imperative. This article explores the American Civil War as an exemplary case of society-centric warfare. It analyses the Union’s coercive and conciliatory efforts to impact Southern collective emotions and behaviour, and the errors that drove counterproductive and escalatory results. It points to two aspects of a rival society that must be correctly assessed for effective society-centric strategy: its collective psychological predispositions – ethos, long-term sentiments and framing of the conflict – and its political culture and economy. It also points to universal psychological dynamics that must be accounted for when devising such strategy.