Memetics: A Growth Industry in U.S. Military Operations

by U.S. Marine Corps

Tomorrow’s US military must approach warfighting with an alternate mindset that is
prepared to leverage all elements of national power to influence the ideological spheres of future
enemies by engaging them with alternate means—memes—to gain advantage.
-
- Defining memes. Memes are "units of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation," and
as ideas become means to attack ideologies. Meme-warfare enters into the hotly contested
battlefields inside the minds of our enemies and particularly inside the minds of the undecided.
- Formations charged with Information Operations (IO) Psychological Operations
(PsyOps), and Strategic Communications (SC) provide an existing construct for memes and the
study of memes, memetics, to grow and mature into an accepted doctrinal discipline.
- Epidemiology of insurgency ideology. Using the analogy that ideologies possess the
same theoretical characteristics as a disease (particularly as complex adaptive systems), then a
similar method and routine can/should be applied to combating them. Memes can and should be
used like medicine to inoculate the enemy and generate popular support.
- Private sector meme application. 3M Corporation employed an innovation meme
designed to cultivate an employee culture, which accepts and embraces innovation in product
development. As a practical matter, 3M executives endorsed and employed the lead user
process in new product development, which translated into a thirty percent profit increase. The
innovation meme was key to 3M’s profit increase.
-The proposed Meme Warfare Center (MWC). The MWC as a staff organization has
the primary mission to advise the Commander on meme generation, transmission, coupled with a
detailed analysis on enemy, friendly and noncombatant populations. The MWC aims for a full
spectrum capability of meme generation, analysis, quality control/assurance and organic
transmission apparatus. The proposed MWC structure lays in stark contrast to the ad hoc nature
of current IO and JPOTF formations.

Cognitive scientists, cultural anthropologists, behavior scientists, and game
theory experts must be included as professional meme-wielding-gunfighters on future
battlefields. The US must recognize the growing need for emerging disciplines in ideological
warfare by ‘weaponeering’ memes. The Meme Warfare Center offers sophisticated and
intellectually rich capability absent in current IO, PsyOps and SC formations and is specifically
designed to conduct combat inside the mind of the enemy. Memes are key emerging tools to win
the ideological metaphysical fight .

24 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 6, 2015

About the author

The U.S. Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States. In the civilian leadership structure of the United States military, the Marine Corps is a component of the United States Department of the Navy, often working closely with U.S. naval forces for training, transportation, and logistic purposes; however, in the military leadership structure the Marine Corps is a separate branch.

Reviews

[Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although GR attributes this to the Marine Corps, it's really just one student's thesis, so adjust your expectations accordingly. It's rather repetitive and vague in the theoretical discussion, until it gets to the main point, which is just a proposed organizational structure. It's also full of jargon and buzzwords, but that at least provides a little insight into how the military thinks. My favorite bit is where the author refers to the act of killing people who support an enemy of the US as "kinetically destroying the ideology".