Model Design for Military Advisors
Abstract
When military advisors professionalize the armed forces of an ally they are creating enduring partnerships between nations and advancing our vital interests by giving our allies the ability to contribute to regional stability. A handful of capable US advisors can seed the technical and doctrinal competence of an emerging military. While this appears straight forward strategically, at the operational level US experiences in Korea, Vietnam, El Salvador, and Afghanistan suggests that little attention is given to matching the advisor to the counterpart based on the operational environment and the developmental needs of the counterpart. Instead, training advisors has assumed a monolithic counterpart with a very narrow range of developmental needs in a narrow operational environment. Military advisors need to understand that counterparts have specific development needs in learning new complex skills. Advisors will benefit from a model to frame their approach to the counterpart s developmental needs. Three dominate models have emerged from successful efforts over the last half century in this regard; the Stoic Acquaintance, the General Manager, and the Entertainer. If a disciplined approach to advisor model selection is injected into the process of military foreign advising, then outcomes related to the individual counterpart s developmental needs will be more predictable and specific.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 02, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA601782
Entities
People
- David B. Gribben
Organizations
- Marine Corps University