The Global Cultural Knowledge Network (GCKN) provides the Army with relevant sociocultural analysis, methodology, expertise, and training to contextualize the Operational Environment (OE) in an effort to reveal the root causes of conflict and instability. 


Robert Kurz, Director: robert.w.kurz.civ@army.mil   ♦   Operational Environment Enterprise: https://oe.tradoc.army.mil    ♦   PiX: https://www.pixtoday.net/gckn

Partner Publications

A selection of publications related to sociocultural research and analysis.

In Across Cultures and Empires, author Mahir Ibrahimov describes life in the Red Army and the twilight of the Soviet Union, the abortive coup against Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and then service to newly independent Azerbaijan, both at home and in opening its embassy in the United States.

Life Looking Death in the Eye: The Iraqi War as Experienced by a U.S. Army Contractor, by Dr. Mahir Ibrahimov, Culture and Area Studies Office (CASO)

In Life Looking Death in the Eye, author Mahir Ibrahimov provides detailed observations of life in the villages he visited, attacks on the U.S. bases, and frustration with a slow-moving bureaucracy to acquire U.S. citizenship.  Ibrahimov then couples this with intellectually-packed explanations of social, religious, and political factors that he believes are responsible for the Iraqi war.