As CSIS’s novel Cooperative Defense Project volition explore, the U.S. national safety corporation has long sought to ensure that U.S. assistance non only advances national safety objectives, but also advances pith U.S. values: democratic civilian command of the military, honour for human rights, observance of the international constabulary of armed conflict, accountability to the dominion of law. This values-based assistance often takes shape through efforts termed “military professionalization.” Implementers remove hold long struggled to measure the effectiveness of armed forces professionalization initiatives, but it is increasingly clear that these efforts are insufficient to check the challenge—and importance—of addressing armed forces professionalism as well as attendant U.S. values inward today’s safety environment. What is needed is a key reexamination as well as reconceptualization of our approach to professionalization of partner armed forces forces.
Military professionalization is an amorphous term non formally defined yesteryear either the Defense or State Departments. It encompasses assistance—including training, education, as well as capacity building—aimed to disclose partner or allied armed forces forces to U.S. as well as international armed forces practices as well as standards relevant to armed combat, accountability mechanisms, as well as effective approaches to governance, as well as to engender commitment to democratic values, civilian command of the military, internationally recognized standards of human rights, as well as the international constabulary of armed conflict. Military professionalization tin hold out accomplished through a make of tools, including classroom education, tactical unit of measurement training, military-to-military exchanges as well as exercises, as well as institutional capacity building. Yet, the U.S. professionalization efforts are currently conceived virtually alone around the participation of unusual students inward private didactics as well as grooming programs, such every bit tending professional person armed forces didactics institutions. Therein lies the source of the problem.
While senior officials routinely praise professionalization programs, at that topographic point is a long listing of anecdotes often raised to telephone scream upwards into inquiry their effectiveness. U.S. professional person armed forces didactics programs remove hold graduated a “Most Wanted” listing of human rights abusers, perpetrators of armed forces coups, as well as oppressive dictators. Though it has been argued that these bad actors correspond the exception rather than the norm, they propose an of import point: armed forces professionalization cannot hold out successful if it is conceived, as well as measured, on an private basis.
The establishment as well as sustainment of armed forces professionalism is necessarily a systemic undertaking. It requires an institutionalized chain of command, established governance organizations as well as processes, as well as systematized mechanisms for grooming novel recruits, upholding standards as well as regulations, enforcing dependent area as well as accountability, as well as forging constructive armed forces civilization as well as identity. As such, targeted grooming or didactics of unmarried individuals hither as well as at that topographic point will, at best, create points of aberration inside a scheme rather that reforming the scheme itself.
Another key lesson is that armed forces professionalism cannot hold out imposed from without. For institutions to work, they must hold out situated inside a nation’s broader political as well as cultural context as well as must brand feel structurally based on the specific requirements of the armed forces institution. Take, for example, the foolish U.S. conclusion to train the developing Afghan Ministry of Defense to teach by its budget based on the Pentagon’s ain Program Planning as well as Budget Execution (PPBE) model: a highly complex, convoluted, bureaucratic budget scheme applied to teach by a ministry building whose entire budget—at less than $5 billion—is equivalent to the annual cost of operating two U.S. Army Brigade Combat Teams. It is no surprise that the Pentagon continues to assess that the ministry building struggles to execute basic budget management functions.
These lessons betoken the ask for a reconceptualization of U.S. armed forces professionalization efforts. Rather than edifice professionalization efforts around private grooming as well as engagement, the U.S. authorities should construction professionalization every bit a fundamentally systemic intervention, engaging partner militaries on institutional policies, processes, as well as organizations. Moreover, it must admit that professionalization cannot hold out forced upon an unwilling partner; it must hold out undertaken every bit a usual projection guided yesteryear the partner military’s leadership.
This novel approach should house a premium on institutional capacity building. The Department of Defense already maintains successful Defense Institution Building (DIB) programs that piece of occupation amongst partners to heighten a make of institutional capabilities relevant to professionalization, including areas relating to governance, personnel development, as well as accountability. Beyond institutional capacity building, a systemic approach to armed forces professionalization should include military-to-military engagements as well as exercises to telephone commutation as well as assess key professionalism concepts, every bit good every bit tactical grooming of armed forces units and, potentially, fabric assistance to ensure sufficient facilities as well as infrastructure. And, without question, it should involve individual-level didactics as well as grooming programs designed to empower private personnel to initiate, shape, as well as answer to institutional reforms.
One could hold out forgiven for balking at the imagined toll tag of such a comprehensive approach to armed forces professionalization. Surely, to a greater extent than robust investment inward certainly areas—particularly institutional capacity edifice as well as human rights training, the latter of which has been describedby CSIS’s Shannon Greene every bit often “merely a check-the-box exercise”—could hold out of import inward achieving to a greater extent than meaningful, consistent results. But what is needed most urgently is non to a greater extent than money, but smarter planning as well as deeper integration across existing safety cooperation efforts.
It begins amongst setting clear objectives: “military professionalization,” every bit noted, is an undefined as well as amorphous concept, ill-suited to guide programmatic investments inward safety assistance. H5N1 professionalization first should position clear goals relating to governance, personnel development, as well as accountability outcomes. Based on those specific, measurable, achievable, relevant as well as results-oriented, as well as time-bound (SMART) objectives, planners should as well as thence arts and crafts holistic initiatives coherently pairing institutional capacity building, unit of measurement training, exercises, private grooming as well as education, as well as other tools. That would mean, for instance, handpicking key officials from offices or units involved inward institutional reforms for participation inward relevant professional person armed forces didactics courses as well as ensuring that solar daytime of the month amongst graduates of such courses is sustained through other programs. Such coordination currently occurs far every bit good infrequently.
Reconceptualizing armed forces professionalization inward this mode is a sine qua non if nosotros are to reorient our cooperative defence forcefulness efforts to advance American values inward the twenty-first- century global environment. More than that, it is a path toward higher success inward achieving national safety objectives through strong armed forces partnerships, every bit the same institutions improved through effective armed forces professionalization efforts also are vital to supporting effective, sustainable armed forces operations. This double value makes the hard piece of occupation of rethinking our approach to armed forces professionalization good worth the effort.
Tommy Ross is a senior associate amongst the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic as well as International Studies inward Washington, D.C.
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