In response to lessons learned, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) launched a comprehensive program, in 2009, to make all Airmen cross-culturally competent (3C). As part of this program, the USAF has included cultural training in all levels of professional...
The Global War on Terror (GWOT) requires that the military modify its methodology for conducting global operations. The military is transitioning from primarily lethal-focused offensive and defensive operations to full-spectrum operations that also...
In the years following the invasion of Iraq, the United States military did not fully realize or understand the complexity of the situation faced by soldiers operating at the tactical and operational level. Coupled with the presence of multiple...
This newsletter contains a collection of previously published articles that focus on Afghan culture and provides insight into effectively communicating with Afghans in order to achieve positive results. More specifically, the articles contained in...
This research seeks to answer one primary research question: What organizational and institutional factors are hindering effective interagency coordination and unity of effort within the contemporary Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT)? To answer...
An Army Outgunned: Physics Demands a New Basic Combat Weapon. Joseph P. Avery, Ph.D.; Army, Marine Corps, and special operations forces M16s fire NATO 5.56x45 millimeter rounds over a half-century old. The services should adopt a more robust...
Cultural awareness is a critical shortfall identified by senior Army leaders. The current training of cultural awareness at the tactical level is limited and geared toward data collection and not application. In order to be an enhancement to...
Since its inception in 2001, the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) has been a geographically limited force addressing a problem that is not geographically constrained. ISAF operations were limited to Kabul initially. In 2003, the...
The precursor to this monograph "The US Army and Security Force Assistance: Assessing the Need for an Institutionalized Advisory Capability," utilized three criteria: importance of advisory operations, frequency of advisory operations, and...
This monograph analyzes the Army's ability to implement operational culture skills to meet the intent of the vision set forth in the 2009 Army Culture and Foreign Language Strategy. First, the monograph reviews Army operations since Vietnam. This...
Negotiation has become for many military leaders a daily task in their role of stabilizing, securing, transitioning, and reconstructing. Negotiation is a means of providing commanders with an alternative to solutions involving the use of force....
This anthology presents 14 insightful, personal accounts from those who advised foreign armies in various times and places over the last 100 years. CSI is publishing this occasional paper as a supplement to Occasional Paper 18, "Advising Indigenous...
With combat formations schedule to begin drawing down in July 2011 and the role of US forces in Iraq already shifting away from the lead, the future of these two nations will grow increasingly dependent upon the indigenous security forces and the...
This document defines a way US military leaders can prepare for and conduct military operations through the lens of cultural awareness. It provides a method for helping military commanders, staffs, and trainers engage successfully in any type of...
This paper examines the importance of cultural understanding in the conduct of war from
the perspective of two very different military conflicts. It begins by examining how
Special Forces soldiers used their knowledge of Arabic and cultural mores...
Layton , Gary L.; Bigger, Murrel; Eckrich, Robert F.
America's negative stand on women in combat deals in myth and not reality; studies on women's physical abilities, personality and interpersonal relationships, plus a look at history, show women are fit for combat.
A close look at women's physical...
United States. Army. Engineer Center and Fort Leonard Wood.
The Guidon came into being as a weekly publication in 1966 under the title Fort Leonard Wood Guidon. Between 1966 and 1987 the title was simplified to Guidon before becoming Essayons in 1988. The name reverted back to Guidon in 1999. It has been...