Roman vs. American COIN ops

[William F. Owen]

Also, I certainly wouldn't limit it to military history. Let me toss out an example of why. First, the very concept of "military" as separate from, say, "political" history is, IMO, silly if for no other reason, and there are other reasons, than that not all cultures separate the two: think classical Greek city states as an example.

Concur. I merely limited it to Military History in terms of my criticism. I am very much taken by Colin Gray's approach to "Strategic History," which causes me to ask where is the "tactical history?" - obviously there are some excellent tactical historians like Rory Muir and Paddy Griffith, but they are very rare compared to the "narrators."

Also, I wouldn't be too sure that studying "entertaining narratives" isn't a good idea. There is some pretty good, indicative evidence that shows that people will, either consciously or sub-consciously, model their identitites and actions after narrative figures.

....so we end up with various folks thinking they are, or wanting to identify others as T.E. Lawrence? OK. Is this useful?

[marct]

Hi Wilf,

Concur. I merely limited it to Military History in terms of my criticism. I am very much taken by Colin Gray's approach to "Strategic History," which causes me to ask where is the "tactical history?" - obviously there are some excellent tactical historians like Rory Muir and Paddy Griffith, but they are very rare compared to the "narrators."

Hmmm, good point. Maybe it's time someone tried to apply the principles of microhistory to "tactical history".

....so we end up with various folks thinking they are, or wanting to identify others as T.E. Lawrence? OK. Is this useful?

Yup - especially if it is our opponents who are doing it !

More seriously, figuring out what the various narrative roles are allow us to (potentially) control for biases both within our own groups and with our opponents. It certainly would not give us tactically useful information, but it would give us strategically useful information.

Anyway, gotta run off to a meeting......

Cheers,

Marc