Military Warriors as Peacekeeper–Diplomats

Abstract

This project examines the sophisticated cultural toolkit deployed by contemporary US military advisors to successfully build productive relationships with foreign security forces, advance the advising mission, and survive combat. This project's data stems from a three-part multi-method, including a survey conducted in Iraq; a document analysis; and interviews. This article focuses on numerous subthemes that coalesce to vividly divulge an intriguing story about how contemporary advisors build relationships with counterparts, including avoiding an ''Ugly American'' approach, how cross-cultural competence benefits the mission and increases survivability, learning about counterparts, the power of informal socializing, employing humor, navigating taboo topics, cultural stretching and associated limits, diplomatically balancing strength and subtlety, and taking physical and cultural risks. This project argues that effective advisors deploy a multifaceted cultural toolkit filled with peacekeeper-diplomat, warrior, subject matter

How Afghanistan Influenced the Content of Armed Forces & Society: An Editor’s Reflection

“…Campbell and Campbell (2010) see the soldiers’ roles evolving toward those of police officers. Hajjar (2014), who explicitly emphasizes the postmodern context, posits that the skills of the warrior are becoming less valuable while those of the peacekeeper or diplomats are employed widely.…”

Military Competence-in-Use in the Expeditionary Era: A Swedish Example From Missions Abroad

“…However, specific empirical studies of military competence are rare. Searches on “military competence” in databases, such as SCOPUS and Web of Science, generate mostly references to the potential of using reserve officers when staffing international missions (Danielsson & Carlstedt, 2011), cross-cultural competence (e.g., Hajjar, 2010, 2014), or competence issues related to family and social situations after service and/or in situations when treating, for example, post-traumatic stress disorder (e.g., Masten, 2013). Competence-related issues have so far mainly been approached from either a professional (Gates, 1985; Huntington, 1960) or an identity perspective (e.g., Bandlitz Johansen et al, 2014).…”

The Russian national branding of innovations in defense industry complex as the answer to global challenges of the present

“…Formation of postmodern military culture is considered by foreign researchers in several aspects. As a way of use of "soft power" it is possible to consider the difficult cultural tool kit developed by modern military consultants of the USA successfully to construct the fruitful relations with foreign security forces [30]. Regarding formation of military culture of a postmodern (it is possible to regard as a component of branding of defensive branch though it is directly not specified it) it is possible to consider branding of armed forces of the USA by means of formation of a certain type of mass culture which result is a virtualization of war and formation of the noncritical identity of the citizen-soldier [31].…”