Military Review English Edition November-December 2014 | Page 76

intricate and powerful multiple skill set—including combat skills, leadership, cross-cultural competence, diplomacy, flexibility, strong moral-ethical fiber, technical military knowledge, and numerous other talents—combined with advisory expertise will best prepare the U.S. armed forces for the next major conflict. Institutionalizing a concentration on military advising, including an effectual advisor training center, while preserving relevant soft-skill programs (such as culture centers, culture education and training, and other helpful culture-based initiatives) will help the military to remain balanced and well prepared for multifaceted future contingencies. Lt. Col. Remi Hajjar, U.S. Army, is an academy professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. He holds a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. Lt. Col. Hajjar has deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq; in Iraq he served as a military advisor to an Iraqi intelligence organization. Notes 1. Joshua J. Potter, American Advisors: Security Force Assistance Model in the Long War (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2011), xv-xvii. 2. Donald Stoker (ed.), Military Advising and Assistance: From Mercenaries to Privatization, 1815-2007 (New York: Routledge, 2008), 2. 3. Robert D. Ramsey III, “Advising Indigenous Forces: American Advisors in Korea, Vietnam, and El Salvador” (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2006). 4. Ibid., 32-33. 5. John A. Nagl, “Institutionalizing Adaptation: It’s Time for an Army Advisor Command,” Military Review (September-October 2008). 6. Ramsey. Numerous salient historic subordinate articles on the Korean and Vietnam Wars emerged in Ramsey’s collation of military advising articles. 7. Ibid, 19. 8. Nick Paton Walsh and Masoud Popalzai, “4 killed in Afghanistan Amid Outrage over Quran Burning,” CNN World website, 25 February 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/25/ world