Asymmetric Warfare Operations. Research Framework and Some Methodological Remarks

Intercultural experiences are part of multinational military operations since early Nineties, when Crises Response Operations (CROs) became routine various military organizations. Research data on military personnel's attitudes toward cultural diversity and intercultural encounters ability induce to think that some "third culture" creation process (in the sense given to it by Fred Casmir, 1999 and by Carley Dodd, 1998) is at work, which permits to improve cooperation and negotiation activities with many different social actors on theatre. The case of Italian Armed Forces compared with six other and different national militaries, is somewhat exemplar of such a revolution in military roles and behaviors, because of their developing of a peculiar ability in cultural diversity acknowledgement and consideration in their performance (Nuciari 2013). In the research here presented the main subject is leadership the leader and her/his behavior in those ‘volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments’ (VUCA), according to the definition given by G. W. Casey. Experiences of intercultural encounters and third culture creation processes are observed by means of in-depth interviews of officers of various countries and in different ranks, describing their activities in CROs, exploring paths of trustful environment creation in different crisis and cultural diversities contexts. The main goal leading the research was to understand reasons of success and failure of trustful cooperation, in order to ascertain what qualities and abilities must be improved in officers' education and training to give rise to a culturally flexible soldier.