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