- Promotion of conformity with group norms over innovation and independent thinking.
- Promotion of a rather extreme deference to authority which discourages initiative among subordinates.
- Promotion of avoidance at all costs, of shame -- discouraging an individual from accepting responsibility and encouraging the manipulation of information to conceal shameful acts.
- Promotion of fierce loyalty to the group which encourages individuals to shield friends and relatives from from shame and reinforces the emphasis on conformity.
- Regarding manual labor as shameful, and considering technical and scientific work as a form of manual labor.
Arab Culture Theory predicts that these patterns of culturally-regular behavior will produce identical patterns of behavior on the battlefield which are crippling to Arab armies and air forces. These patterns of military ineffectiveness can be boiled down to four pervasive problems:
- Militaries display severe problems with tactical leadership. Junior officers demonstrate little initiative, creativity, flexibility, or capacity for independent action in combat. Thus ground and air forces appear incapable of fighting maneuver battles or improvising ad hoc operations in the heat of battle.
- Militaries suffer paralysis due to poor information flows. Junior officers and enlisted personnel regularly dissemble, exaggerate, obfuscate, and lie to conceal mistakes and unpleasant news, no matter how large or small.
- Military personnel possess very limited technical skills. As a result, armed forces can rarely take full advantage of their weapons and equipment.
- Because Arab technicians do not understand how to properly care for sophisticated machinery, militaries have difficulty maintaining their equipment. Few military operators understand the need for constant preventive maintenance. [Rather than addressing the problem, militaries blame the suppliers.]
