Good strategy presumes good sociology and good anthropology.
That’s a maxim of Bernard Brodie, sometimes called the American Clausewitz. Brodie got his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago just before the United States entered World War II. His point was that you can’t control your adversaries without knowing something about them.
Brodie was among the people who changed the way we think about war — and even Americans do think deeply about war. If you allowed ordinary citizens to tour a fleet headquarters, the big surprise would not be the technology but the number of people who have graduate degrees.
I think the U.S. military has an excellent idea about whether it’s reasonable to expect a regime change from the president’s war against Iran.
But I’m prejudiced. I don’t think anyone at the White House knows enough about sociology and anthropology to conquer Minneapolis, much less Iran.
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