International Relations: Advancing Foreign Area Officers to Flag Officer Rank
Abstract
Army leadership currently assigns operational career field general officers (GO) as the United States Senior Defense Official (SDO) in several countries in United States Central Command's (USCENTCOM) Area of Responsibility (AOR). Although these officers are superb in their career field, this paper will argue that today's Middle East Foreign Area Officer (FAO) is far better qualified to serve as the SDO in these critical operational and strategic level GO positions. It will also argue that expertise and talent demonstrated by FAOs best serves the Army, Department of Defense (DOD) and the United States Government in these International billets. This paper will evaluate this argument by briefly addressing the importance of the Middle East to the United States, FAO selection, special training and qualifications, and the current GO billets in USCENTCOM's AOR. We will then evaluate the benefit of having a FAO general as SDO, the Army cultural change required to allow in country and senior staff FAOs to rise to General Officer/Flag rank and the way ahead to realizing this concept. Finally, we will address other DOD billets that would benefit in having the expertise of a FAO GO.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 30, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA500903
Entities
People
- Tarek Mekhail
Organizations
- United States Army War College