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Executive Summary

This white paper examines whether the cultural and structural pathologies identified by Johan Galtung and John McMurtry are repeating in U.S. strategy and foreign policy today.

• Theoretical Foundations:
  • Galtung’s model of direct, structural, and cultural violence explains how symbolic permanence legitimizes war. His archetypes — CMT (Chosenness, Myths, Traumas), DMA (Dichotomy, Manicheism, Armageddon), and RP (Repression–Projection) — diagnose recurring patterns in U.S. narratives.
  • McMurtry’s war-state paradigm identifies a self-reinforcing political economy of militarization: a closed circuit of necessity escalates opposition into annihilation, sustained by arms-industry lock-ins and the erosion of the civil commons.
• Pattern Diagnosis:
  The triad of cultural codes, procedural formulae, and structural lock-ins explains why militarized responses recur. Cultural myths legitimize, war-state formulae operationalize, and economic dependencies perpetuate escalation.
• Case Applications (2024–2025):
  • Gaza and the ICJ: U.S. support persisted despite ICJ provisional measures, reflecting chosenness narratives and law bypass.
  • Red Sea: Shipping attacks escalated into multinational strikes, sanitized by placenames and framed as global necessity.
  • Ukraine and NATO: NATO expansion deepened dichotomous framing and alliance lock-ins, sustaining escalation.
  • CHIPS/AI: Tech rivalry securitized innovation, extending war-state dynamics into industrial policy.
• Risks:
  • Humanitarian: erosion of law, normalization of collective punishment.
  • Strategic: shortened escalation ladders, nuclear fragility.
  • Economic: inflation, supply shocks, opportunity costs.
  • Governance: secrecy, capture, accountability erosion.
  • Cultural: annihilation normalized, alternatives erased.
• Therapy and Transformation:
  • Galtung: Build cultural peace by recoding symbols, transforming education, delegitimizing myths.
  • McMurtry: Rebuild the civil commons, redefine security in terms of universal threats (climate, health, poverty).
  • Policy package: diplomacy-first triggers, compliance with ICJ/UN law, sunset-dated export controls, civil commons investment, autonomous weapons guardrails, cultural reform of rituals and narratives.

Conclusion: The patterns are repeating, but they can be broken. Transformation requires delegitimizing cultural violence, dismantling war-state lock-ins, and re-centering security on life-value and commons stewardship.