Alexandros Kassidiaris
(Security Analyst, Postgraduate from the Department of War Studies,
King's College London, UK)
Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 3 May 2016
'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles' (Sun Tzu, 2012). The importance of thoroughly knowing and understanding the enemy on the battlefield can be summarized in this well-known and diachronic Sun Tzu's quotation. But what are the implications of this 'knowledge' in the contemporary operational theater? Besides the military and tactical capabilities, the significance of other individual key elements cannot be overlooked. One of the prominent elements that fall into this category is the familiarization with the enemy's cultural context. This hypothesis is even more vital when the potential enemy may be hidden among the civilians of a specific population which actually shapes the traditional pattern of insurgencies. ..Read more