grok (tr.v.) slang:  to understand profoundly through intuition or empathy [from Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land].

"Soldiers must understand how vital culture is in accomplishing today's missions.  Military personnel who have a superficial or even distorted picture of a host culture make enemies for the United States.  Each soldier must be a culturally literate ambassador, aware and observant of local cultural beliefs, values, behaviors and norms."

From "Culture Cards", produced by the United States Army

The items selected for inclusion in the Grokking Guides consist of 

·       Pentagon Library holdings,

·      government and military databases or similar resources which are available online to registered individuals, and

·       material that is freely available on the open Web. 

The Grokking Guides seek to foster cross-cultural understanding and communication by identifying publications which explicate the worldviews, social customs, psychology, thought mechanisms, and language of various international cultures.  Understanding the perceptions and perspectives of others is the requisite first step in establishing successful personal relationships.

Descriptions of the resources in this Grokking Guide are extracted from each individual work or website and/or from promotional material made publicly available by the publisher, producer, or purveyor of the work.