Enhancing Security Force Assistance: Advisor Selection, Training, and Employment

Abstract

The United States has employed military advisors since our founding as a nation. The U.S. military may have captured the lessons learned from throughout its history of association with advisory missions, but mismatches remain in our current Department of Defense (DoD) directives, doctrine, and guidance regarding the execution of Security Force Assistance (SFA) operations -- specifically in relation to the selection, training, and employment of advisors, key executors of this strategic mission. The U.S. experience in Vietnam and resulting lessons learned (or not learned) from contemporary SFA operations form a basis for improvements for the current identification, preparation, and utilization of advisors serving in overseas contingency operations (OCO). This research project recommends how the military should select and assess advisors. It further recommends a training program for them and proposes that they can be best employed as part of a unified, well-coordinated contingency operation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 22, 2011
Accession Number
ADA553121

Entities

People

  • Marc D. Axelberg

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combat Operations
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Department Of Defense
  • Doctrine
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Governments
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Advisors
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • Personnel Management
  • Training
  • United States
  • Vietnam War
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Systems Analysis and Design