The Development of the Air Force FAO Program

by Major Rusty E. Shugart

"The USAF Foreign Area Officer program falls under the Secretary of the Air Force for International Affairs. Readers who would like information on the program are invited to visit our webstite at http://www.safia.hq.af.mil/afaao/fao/2002site/index.htm

Last year, the Air Force Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Colorado Springs sponsored several research projects related to the Department of Defense interest in developing foreign language and area proficiencies among its commissioned uniformed personnel. The Air Force FAO Program: A Case Study on Air Force Planning, DoD Roles, and Inter-Service Relationships is a key product of that interest. Based on a two-month investigation of Air Force planning, it represents the first comprehensive assessment of the Air Force effort to institute an effective program to address DoD and Service FAO interests and equities. The article below is the Executive Summary of that research paper. The paper itself is available through INSS or may be obtained from the author, Major Rusty Shughart, China Desk Officer, Defense HUMINT Service, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), (703) 604-0286. Readers are invited to contact Major Shughart for additional background information on INSS, the Air Force FAO program or defense attached operations.


The Air Force FAO Program: A Case Study on Air Force Planning, DoD Roles, and Inter-Service Relationships

Executive Summary

Introduction

For many years, the Air Force has grappled with an assessment of the utility of foreign language and area expertise among its commissioned officer corps. Although the Air Force leadership has never sanctioned area proficiencies as vital ingredients of an officer's education or career development, it nonetheless recognizes that these skills provide at least ancillary contributions to air operations.

Unlike in previous years, the Air Force now faces an increasing likelihood that officer foreign language and area expertise may contribute greatly to operational success. Since 1990, gradual changes in the geopolitical landscape have overridden a national political and policy posture dominated by a decades-old emphasis on the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc states. In supporting a new world order, the tenets of Joint Vision 2010 and Global Engagement fundamentally redefine the Air Force future contribution in war and peace across the range of full spectrum dominance. Accordingly, the utility of officer foreign area expertise has increased substantially, particularly germane in air coalition initiatives overseas and in non-traditional operations other than war, such as humanitarian intervention and relief missions. As a result, the Air Force - a primary instrument of the national security strategy - must consolidate its global agenda, paying more attention to engaging the international community; it must invest more heavily and imaginatively in both preparatory and support programs to ensure that its officer corps has the requisite skills to effectively implement global initiatives. Collectively, the convergence of Global Engagement interests and its supportive foreign language and area skill set provides the Air Force compelling justification to develop and implement a viable Foreign Area Officer (FAO) program.

The Investigative Approach

This research paper is the first critical review of the Air Force FAO program, its underlying planning factors and the role DoD organizations played in its development. The author conducted most of the research and writing of this INSS product in July and August 1999 at the National Defense University, Fort Leslie J. McNair, Washington, D.C. In developing this report, the author first conducted an extensive literature review to identify key organizations and programs associated with the accession, training and utilization of officers with foreign language and area expertise. This review led to the identification of key managers and 64 stakeholders" in the Air Force FAO initiative, which the author then engaged in a series of informal conversations and formal interviews under the rubric of "non-attribution" discussion. As a vital component of this approach, the author devised a series of questions to assess the FAO program architecture from various perspectives, such as its philosophical basis; force structure development; accession programs; management and utilization plans; and cost-benefit factors. Finally, with INSS support, the author also attended several foreign languages training conferences; participated in significant foreign language related briefings and discussions; and conducted relevant interviews beyond the Washington, D.C. area.

The result is a three-part assessment. First, The Road Traveled summarizes the Air Force traditional interests in foreign language and area expertise. Second, Avenues of Approach describes the pathways of the FAO planning effort as of the ICOD of this report. Third, and most importantly, The Road Ahead highlights and summarizes discussions between the author and members of the Air Force FAO management and stakeholder communities in a non-derivative form, to include recommendations for improving the FAO program.

The Road Traveled

The Air Force has sustained FAO-related interests since the 1960's. However, the low number of validated area requirements within the Service itself did not provide compelling justification to create a fully developed FAO career path or program architecture. Although a series of factors fostered an evolution of the Air Force perspective on officer area expertise, DoD, the Joint Staff and the Defense Agencies provided the revolutionary impetus to fashion Air Force areas interests into a true FAO program.

Today, the Air Force FAO program has many advantages over its predecessor, the Foreign Area Studies Program (FASP). First, it enjoys upper level interest and support, with a baseline of expertise mandated in a CORONA-directed milestone for 10 percent of the officer corps to be proficient in a foreign language by the year 2005. Second, it is tied to the long-term strategy of Joint Vision 2010 and Global Engagement, dovetailing with big Air Force plans and operations. Third, it has centralized proponency and advocacy from SAF/IA. Fourth, it is resourced, giving the program the administrative legs over the FYDP. Fifth, it fits into a CONOP with a coordinated AFI. In this sense, the Air Staff has taken those first uneasy steps down the FAO path, having "legitimized" the requirement and "normalized" the initiative as a full and secondary AFSC tied to broad-based utilization well beyond the validated requirements of the intelligence community.

Avenues of Approach.

Within the context of the evolution of the Air Force's interest in foreign language and area expertise among its officer corps, the Air Force FAO Proponent Office is creating the pathways to facilitate the transition to a fully developed FAO program. Generally, this effort falls into four categories: (1) force structure development; (2) active component training and accession programs; (3) pre-commissioning education and recruiting programs; and (4) management and utilization plans. Descriptions of these initiatives are available at the Air Force FAO Proponent Office web page: http://www.hci.af.mil/af/saf/ia/afaaolfao.

The Road Ahead.

Generally, most Air Force FAO program stakeholders acknowledge that the Air Force Proponent Office has fostered major advancements in establishing, developing and promoting the program architecture; however, they are concerned about the future of the undertaking. Generally, their views can be grouped into a series of recommendations under five broad headings: (1) refine the philosophy and programmatic focus; (2) identify and define the requirement set; (3) cultivate the program administrative relationships; (4) consolidate advances in the program and realize the full potential of advocacy; and (5) develop the mid-term concept of operations to evolve the initiative into a true FAO program.

1. Refine the FAO Philosophy and Programmatic Focus. Many observers note that it is crucial that the Proponent refine the Air Force FAO philosophy and programmatic focus. Most stakeholders acknowledge that CORONA is the primary catalyst behind the Air Force interest in developing foreign area expertise among the officer corps. However, observers familiar with the principles behind DoD's FAO philosophy note that the CORONA-based initiative lacks the requisite potency and professional rigor to underwrite a world-class FAO program. The Air Force FAO initiative, as the Proponent now envisions it, falls well short of DoD's performance expectations. In architecture and vision, it has at least four major shortfalls: (1) it does not develop a professional FAO corps; (2) it lacks the requirement for professional foreign language proficiency; (3) it does not require advanced civil schooling; and (4) it does not cultivate advanced area expertise among the senior echelon. Many stakeholders are concerned that by overvaluing CORONA's role as the philosophical foundation, the Air Force has not duly considered the greater operative need for foreign language and area expertise as embodied in DoD Directive 1315.17.

Philosophically, the CORONA and DoD directives stem from two distinct interests and have two distinct sets of goals. CORONA established the requirement to "shape" the commissioned force with a large number of culturally proficient officers to support Air Force Global Engagement over the long term. Levels of academic achievement and cultural exposure among the members of this pool are more important than the attainment and maintenance of professional-level foreign language performance standards. As such, the educational initiative has only limited force structure implications, as utilization will stem from an inherent competence embedded within the deploying force. Conversely, the DoD directive is steeped in the operational need. In this sense, it requires practical solutions in the short-term to address the crucial requirement for a smaller number of foreign language and area experts to support FAO "interoperability" in the joint arena. Accordingly, it stipulates 4 &professional" foreign language performance criteria in addition to advanced levels of academic achievement and foreign area operational experience. The FAO training initiative has clear force structure implications, requiring the development of experts with advanced area proficiency to support the tenets of Joint Vision 20 1 0; utilization will stem from assignments through traditional force management processes. As such, a major challenge to the Air Force is to develop methodologies to cultivate FAO-quality expertise within the integrated structure of the Service as opposed to creating an elite FAO cadre.

2. Identify and Define FAO Requirement Set. Many stakeholders note that it is equally important that the Proponent work closely with the FAO user community to develop a network of sanctioned FAO requirements. They recommend a strategy of standardizing the requirement set, when possible, and note that a validated need for FAO expertise is an essential ingredient to drive other FAO programming activities.

3. Cultivate the FAO Program Administrative Relationships. Observers note that the Proponent also faces the daunting task of promoting the value of foreign language and area expertise within the Air Force, what one observer notes is the "I'll see it when I believe it" syndrome. To overcome cultural stigmas and to develop and apply area expertise, the Proponent must strive for quality networking that far exceeds merely linking with other Air Force organizations. It is impossible to be a "Lone Ranger" in the FAO business, aspiring to build a program without incorporating the expertise and resources of the greater DoD and civilian communities. Accordingly, active networking is the common essential ingredient in five major recommendations from the observers: (1) craft the FAO user and stakeholder communities; (2) guide the FAO provider and management communities; (3) align the program to comply with DoD oversight requirements; (4) integrate the foreign language initiatives into Defense Foreign Language Program; and (5) relinquish responsibility for the LRPES #10-7 goal to the Air Force Personnel Directorate.

4. Consolidate Advances in the FAO Program and Realize the Full Potential of FAO Advocacy. Most observers concur that the Air Force has broken new ground in its efforts to legitimize the call for foreign language and area proficiency among its officer corps. The fate of the FAO initiative depends greatly on the Proponent's competence, leadership and commitment to the FAO concept. The Proponent's ability to sustain momentum in evolving the program is paramount - a challenge that extends well beyond traditional staff actions such as POM'ing and candidate boarding to include staff innovation, program flexibility and strategic focus. The stakeholders suggest that the Proponent adopt five recommendations to consolidate the progress attained thus far and to position the FAO program for continued maturation: (1) enhance marketing and outreach programs; (2) sustain senior leadership support; (3) foster a FAO culture; (4) publicize success; and (5) fight for feedback.

5. Develop the Mid-term Concept of Operations to Evolve the FAO Initiative into a True FAO Program. There remains a clear need for the Proponent to "normalize" the FAO initiative in the traditional sense, to go beyond cobbling together a program to validate FAO requirements and codify performance standards. Observers note that in recent years, key members of the Air Force leadership have retired or resigned; accordingly the leaders in place today are aware that a FAO program is in place but perhaps do not understand the history or essence of the FAO issue or the context in which decisions must take place. In addition, stakeholder point out that the Air Force is still trying to administer a FAO program "on the cheap," adding that FASP failed largely because it was cobbled together with insufficient attention and resourcing. A significant investment in time, dollars and effort is required to realize true dividends in FAO proficiency. As such, there are five primary recommendations to normalize the Air Force FAO program: (1) seek opportunities for FAO- designation as a primary AFSC; (2) field test options to develop a professional FAO force; (3) develop and field a tailored FAO course; (4) sponsor FAO professional cadre, Capstone programs; and (5) develop and implement a Total Force perspective.

2001, Foreign Area Officer Association
Springfield, Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve Gotowicki.
http://www.faoa.org