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Cuba
Cuban strategic culture since the revolution, while resilient, is nevertheless being put under tremendous strain. The new security environment, enmeshed in a globalizing economy and interdependent society of states with common social and political values, is posing serious challenges to how security has been perceived in Cuba for the last 50 years. Contemporary Cuba is characterized by a growing gap between the strategic culture of the elite and the political culture of much of the population. The youth and the intellectuals are the most disaffected. The dire economic conditions and the increasing role of Cuba's highly professional military in the economy compel observers to wonder how long the strident strategic culture of the past five decades can last.
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Dominican Republic
The Dominican State is relatively strong. It has a modicum of control over the border and is able to implement public policy throughout its national territory. The democratic political regime in the Dominican Republic retains the clientelistic nature of the system from the earlier authoritarian era. In some measure, all authority rests with the chief executive partially because of the presidential nature of the system. This is a structural characteristic that is also paradoxically responsible for the relative success of the system. It binds citizens, the private sector, political parties and all other institutions. It also contributes to the charges of widespread corruption and the subsequent erosion of support for democracy and the political institutions that run the system.
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Haiti
A contentious, antagonistic, and often violent relationship has defined interactions between the masses and the political elite. The perception is that the State, controlled by predatory elites, has historically extracted resources from the populace, often through violence, and has not provided substantial long term benefits to Haitian society. Haiti does not possess or exercise sovereignty (de facto and dejure) in the traditional and functional sense of the word. The State is completely reliant on foreign aid and assistance to maintain itself. The State is incapable of performing the basic duties and responsibilities of a traditional state, viz. providing a secure and stable context for civil society. International organizations (NGOs and IGOs) and foreign states provide peacekeeping (e.g., UN), funding (e.g., IMF, World Bank, US direct financial aid), supplies, and disaster relief. In short, IOs and foreign states buttress and maintain the Haitian State.
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Jamaica
Jamaica’s strategic culture is indelibly influenced by its tropical geography, strategic location and diverse population, as well as by the experiences of the sugar revolutions between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries. The present government and political system owes much to the institutions created by the British in colonial Jamaica. After the decline of the planter-elite in the late nineteenth century, a new diverse elite managed a complex, resourceful and resilient society that placed a high premium on democracy, social and economic justice, and human dignity.
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Trinidad and Tobago
The geographic factors influencing the strategic culture of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) are its extensive Caribbean maritime border as part of the Eastern Caribbean Archipelago, its proximity to Venezuela, and its land-based and maritime hydrocarbon resources. Although the twin-island state is small in area and population, the comparatively large size of its economy is the result of its extractive and heavy energybased industrial complex. As an island nation, T&T shares a more region-focused strategic culture. It has pressed for special treatment of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), a distinct identity in international forums that face similar sustainable development challenges, including small but growing populations, limited resources, natural disasters, vulnerability to external shocks, and fragile ecosystems.
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Belize
The study of Belize’s strategic culture provides an opportunity to assess the utility of the concept for understanding the power elite of a non-plantation post-colonial society. Geographic location has and continues to impact significantly in the shaping of Belize’s strategic culture. This location on the northern Central American isthmus has historically, in addition to the metropolitan links with the United Kingdom, provided an entrepôt and platform for legal and illegal commercial activity into Central America, in particular Guatemala, Mexico, and the markets of the United States of America. Such a location of opportunity has had a significant effect on domestic capital accumulation, the shaping of Belize’s economic history, and the political influence of the national economic elite on Belizean strategic culture.
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Costa Rica
Costa Rica has developed a unique strategic culture. Having voluntarily abolished its military in 1948, and constitutionally banned its reconstitution as a permanent institution, it has entrusted its sovereignty and territorial integrity to the primacy of the rule of law. Internal law is its first and last line of defense. Costa Rica has a unique understanding of strategic culture. It has been defined as anywhere from quixotic to idiosyncratic to legalistic/moralistic. Regardless, its strategic culture has endured, despite the fact that Costa Rica is located in a turbulent and difficult neighborhood.Its strategic culture is based on the widespread belief that Costa Rica is fundamentally different from the rest of the region.
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El Salvador
Historically, Salvadorans have been aware of the high population density of their country. Small size and large population have been two of the most important geographical determinants of the country’s strategic culture. There is no doubt that the failure of the Central American Federation (largely favored by the Salvadoran elites), the establishment of the republic, continued ethnic strife, and the fight against Walker all constitutes the background of the country’s strategic culture. Yet, the first real historical marker is the hasty process of land privatization that took place during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Another important strategic marker to note is the early professionalization of the Salvadoran army, which began in 1876. The Salvadoran ideological spectrum has traditionally been extremely polarized. Relations between El Salvador and Honduras had always been difficult. Historically, the border between the two countries has been a source of tension and has since been resolved with the exception of Conejo Island. During the 1980s, the Reagan Administration, eager to “draw the line against communism” in El Salvador, promoted a counterinsurgency strategy designed to defeat the popular uprising taking place in the country at the time, known as The Twelve-Year War. Migration has helped reduce rural unemployment and has infused countless households with extra income in the form of the remittances.
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Guatemala
A diverse topography and poor infrastructure give rise to socio-political divisions that hinder a sense of national unity, and present internal security issues. The elite keepers of Strategic Culture see Guatemala’s role in the world as larger than its size or economic capacity indicate. They see Guatemala as the economic and political leader in Central America, and as having fought a crucial frontline battle against communism in the face of international condemnation of their tactics. The urban elites hold a cosmopolitan view of their place in the world, and yet are intensely parochial in terms of family and social ties. Guatemala’s fragile state of affairs creates an environment in which non-State actors (from NGOs to narco-traffickers) have increasing power that rivals or influences the State. In Guatemala, fragmented and fluid political parties create legislative instability.
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Honduras
Honduras has a long history of boundary disputes with neighboring countries. Since the colonial era, Honduras has viewed its border as ill defined and vulnerable to foreign invasion. Honduras’ topography and lack of large quantities of resources have contributed to regionalism, unequal development and weak political institutions. Francisco Morazán’s ideas and his life as an example, have contributed to the way in which many Hondurans have defined their relations domestically—between social and political groups—and with countries inside and outside the region.
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Nicaragua
Three specific themes can be extracted from Nicaragua's complex and dynamic history that directly inform and impact the establishment, continuity, and evolution of Nicaragua's Strategic Culture; that is, Colonialism, Foreign Intervention, and Perpetual Conflict (socio-political and economic). Each of the themes has been present, to a significant degree, within various periods of Nicaraguan history.
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Panama
Panama demonstrates how geography shapes the formation and development of the social ainstitutions of a nation. As such, the strategic culture of Panama has to be understood in terms of the political, social, economic and cultural processes surrounding the management of the Panama Canal. The Canal created the nation and the society of Panama as it is today. For a country “at the service of the world,” Panama’s foreign relations have historically been quite narrow. Since independence in 1903 the United States has been the focal point of Panama’s foreign relations, both politically and economically. Panama is a transactional rather than a confrontational society. Panama therefore can be characterized as the nation of the “deal,” where everything is for sale.
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Argentina
Historically, Argentine Strategic Culture (hereinafter ASC) has demonstrated remarkable continuity over time, although in the past two decades there have been signs of possible changes in the core assumptions and themes that have undergirded ASC.
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Bolivia
In Bolivia, historical and structural realities, such as Bolivia’s experience with colonialism, the overwhelming significance of natural resources such as silver, tin, and hydrocarbons, periodic wars against its neighbors, and a pattern of profound socio-economic exclusion, have provided the backdrop for the emergence of a political culture that rationalized this historical-structural setting into a comprehensive core set of values and views..
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Brazil
The Brazilian National Defense Strategy underscores and builds perceptions of security upon peace and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. It is remarkable that the first word in the Brazilian National Defense Strategy (December 2008) is - peace. This key document states that ―peace is the main goal of this strategy. In general, Brazilians believe that they are a peaceful people, and that peace is an ingrained cultural value. Since the establishment of the Brazilian Republic, the Brazilian military has become one of the most important and enduring keepers of Brazilian Strategic Culture. Since its inception, the Brazilian Foreign Service (Ministério de Relações Exteriores, also known as Itamaraty) has been the other most visible keeper of Brazilian Strategic Culture.
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Chile
Given unique national formative historical experiences, nation-building and stateconsolidation processes, popular social ethos, national elites’ socio-economic interests, physical and geographical imperatives, and the institutional memory, posture, and interests of the armed forces, a particular pattern or national style pertaining to the use of force evolves distinctively in individual countries. Consequently, joining together rational utilitarian planning in a competitive context (i.e., strategy) with a distinctive national pattern or style about the use of force (i.e., culture) produces the synthetic and complex notion of Strategic Culture.
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Colombia
Any strategic decisions on the use of force will require factoring in Colombia's mountainous and fragmented geography. Despite modernization of transportation and infrastructure, large portions of the territory remain underdeveloped, disjointed, and inaccessible. Highly educated technocratic elites drawn from the capital and provinces such as Antioquia continue to dominate politics and public administration. Guerrilla warfare and drug trafficking groups, now atomized, continue to be the main enduring challenges to security and stability in Colombia.
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Ecuador
Ecuador is and sees itself as multi-dimensionally diverse: the cultural and "racial" diversity of its population (whites, mestizos, indigenous peoples, black communities, Lebanese-Ecuadorians, Chinese-Ecuadorians, etc.), the diversity of its ecological environments (the Galapagos Islands, the coastal region, the Andean highlands, the Amazonian region), and the diversity of its economic activities all contribute to a rich, complex, and dynamic society. The hacienda system is a key concept to keep in mind when analyzing the culture of elites in Ecuador, as well as the forms of articulation and engagement between elites and subaltern groups. Paternalism and redistribution, in conjunction with occasional violence, which were central for the continuation of the system, remain salient values among elites. While the hacienda system has been discontinued in practice, it still affects the functioning of the Ecuadorian State and society.
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Guyana
In assessing how leaders leverage landscapes in Guyana this Findings Report embraces contextual adaptation rather than complete adoption of the strategic culture design. It (a) offers historical, socio-cultural, economic, and other contours of the Origins of Guyana’s strategic culture, (b) probes the values and beliefs of its Keepers, (c) examines territorial disputes, drugs, and crime as core enduring rivalries and emerging Challenges, and (d) discusses the vicissitudes of the November 2011 elections and deficits in capabilities for credible national defense and public security as key aspects of Continuity and Change.
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Paraguay
Paraguay fought in the two largest and most destructive conventional wars in Latin American history, the “War of the Triple Alliance” (1864-1870) and the Chaco War (1932-1935). Further, it was involved in 35 militarized interstate disputes from 1846 to 1962. Its society is unique among Latin American nations; the pre-Colombian Guaraní indigenous tribe’s culture and language became Paraguay’s national essence. In fact, Paraguay is the only country in Latin America with two official languages: Spanish and Guaraní.
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Perú
History, geography and ethnicity have created geographic and social cleavages that divide the Peruvian people. The Andes has represented a significant barrier to communication and, in effect, created two separate regions – one dominated by a political and economic elite (whites and mestizos), and the other by mainly indigenous peoples residing in relative poverty. Instability and party weakness contribute to a dysfunctional strategic culture. In such a fragmented political context, it is not surprising that public opinion is divided. Divided public opinion weakens strategic culture. That may account for the growing dissonance between strategic culture and the strategic reality in which Peru operates. Recent investments in infrastructure may change strategic culture: new investments within the framework of IIRSA planning (IDB) with strong Brazilian support suggest a possible transition to a more coherent, pragmatic strategic culture. Success in collaboration between USSOUTHCOM and the Peruvian military will depend on persuading the Peruvian armed forces to move beyond its historical obsession with a Chilean invasion.
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Uruguay
Uruguay lies between Argentina and Brazil at the mouth of the Río de la Plata estuary. The country’s official name, Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a reference to its location on the eastern bank of the Río Uruguay. Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, has an excellent natural port strategically located on the Río de la Plata. In colonial times and until the 1820s, Uruguay, by then known as Banda Oriental (Eastern Shore), was a territory disputed by other empires or countries. In 1828, Banda Oriental became Uruguay, an independent country, as a result of a treaty between Argentina, Banda Oriental and Brazil, with British mediation.
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Venezuela
Since the twentieth century, Venezuela's access to resources from oil production has reinforced its preference for diplomatic and economic means to achieve its international objectives. It has also created an enduring dependence on imported technology and materiel, particularly in the defense sphere, which undermines its capacity to use military means to influence international affairs. Traditional elite keepers of national strategic culture in Venezuela have been sidelined, purged, or dismantled during the Chávez regime. They no longer pose a significant check to President Hugo Chávez vis-à-vis his decision-making process. Rather, foreign policy is guided by an anti-imperialist, anti-neoliberal economics, and anti-globalization vision that views the United States as the main threat to the Bolivarian revolution and Venezuelan sovereignty. Venezuela strategic culture has no historical element of anti-Americanism (unlike other Caribbean states). The Venezuelan public is a major consumer of American cultural products and generally favors good relations with the United States. This runs counter to the Chávez administration's international orientation and its efforts to mobilize the population for national defense against the United States.
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