Preparing Soldiers to Help Foreign Partners Meet 21st Century Challenges
Abstract
The first half of the 21st century will not be like the last half of the 20th. Then, we faced a peer competitor who would provide unambiguous notice of hostile intentions against which we could deploy massive amounts of conventional forces alongside similarly trained and equipped forces of allied nations. Today and tomorrow, we face a more uncertain threat, posed by a much wider range of actors who, before they attack us directly, must expand their power and influence over populations whose governments ignore legitimate needs and aspirations and whose security forces fail to protect them from the depredations of radical groups espousing extremist ideologies. Security cooperation, an umbrella term for Department of Defense (DOD) programs designed to build capacity in and relationships with foreign nations, was developed in the 20th century but was little used by a military largely focused on a major land conflict. However, it is exactly the right kind of tool for developing partner capacity and long-term relationships in the 21st century. We had little knowledge or practice of counterinsurgency when we began Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, and in the past the Army had little knowledge and paid scant attention as a service to security cooperation. Other than in special programs for foreign area officers and those bound for specific security cooperation missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, we dedicated little effort to this important task in our professional military education system. Moreover, Army security cooperation remains stovepiped as policy rather than integrated as doctrine. This may explain why the techniques of planning and executing security force assistance missions are not in the core curriculums of our educational institutions. We must reverse this trend by integrating security cooperation into our training, doctrine, and education, or we risk repeating the mistakes that left us unprepared for the current strategic environment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA542464
Entities
People
- Edward P. Donnelly
- Robert Maginnis
Organizations
- United States Army Combined Arms Center