Applications

Abstract

This chapter details the shortcomings of current cultural approaches toward defense operations and explores the benefits of hermeneutical thinking in assessing the possibility of transforming cultures through military intervention (as shown in the case of Afghanistan). It notes that the very political objective of transforming non-Western societies through nation or state building suffers from a superficial understanding of the concept of the culture as being-in-the-world. Furthermore, it overlooks the potential contributions of hermeneutical insights such as dialogical process and the fusion of horizons to addressing such challenges, though it must be said that if the conditions for a successful cross-cultural communication are not present—and no mechanical force nor psychological manipulation can be applied for it to be obtained—then it will simply not happen until those conditions are met.