Kneading the Dough Together: The Application of Strategic Empathy Among American National Security Professionals

Abstract

The term “strategic empathy” in national security affairs sounds appealing. Ask practitioners what it means, though, and they will all provide a different answer. Is it Sun Tzu’s “know your enemy?” Is it a tool for Machiavellian manipulation? Is it morally superior to empathize with the adversary? Is it ethically bereft to use that knowledge intentionally to gain advantage? These are questions that national security practitioners wrestle with when attempting to pin down a buzzword in a beltway. Yet, humanity’s history of conflict suggests that there may be a place for strategic empathy to create improved outcomes for national security practitioners when it is employed vis-à-vis a foreign counterpart. This research investigates how national security practitioners can effectively employ strategic empathy to create improved national security outcomes. Six national security practitioners interviewed for this research shared their lived experiences engaging empathically with foreign counterparts through phenomenological interviews. The qualitative, interdisciplinary data they provided resulted in a process for how to conduct strategic empathy in two phases, analysis and implementation. Woven among the process are themes and best practices related to imagination, dialogue, intersubjectivity, and value salience. The strategic empathy process resulting from this research, along with its best practices, represents a starting hypothesis for national security practitioners to test during their own professional experiences, and a new venture for additional research.