What's So "Foreign" About FAO?

by LTC Paul S. Gendrolis

So why are we called FAOs? A better question might be why not? The first letter of FAO does stand for foreign - foreign country, foreign language, foreign relations, foreign policy. Everything we do is considered foreign - literally and figuratively. And as our logo attests, we are the US Army's global strategic scouts, its soldier statesmen, its foreign experts, its Foreign Area Officers. In terms of what a FAO does throughout a military career, the most important use of foreign applies to foreign policy.

It is critical that we fully understand everything possible concerning US foreign policy - theory, formulation, decision-making and decision-makers, application, and exceptions to the rule. This understanding enables us to operate in our host country and within our region with a high level of professional knowledge and confidence. Although it is a goal of the FAO training program to develop regional specialists, it is also important to remember that we must have a general awareness and understanding of US foreign policy as it affects other regions of the world.

As a FAO, you might be the only US military representative in any given situation and asked to explain or comment on US policy regarding any number of global issues, such as sanctions against specific countries, human rights and arms transfers, and economic aid and most favored nation status. A solid foundation in US foreign policy also enables us to better understand the dynamics of the host country's foreign policy and that of the other countries within the region, both with each other and with the US.

In our continuing study of US foreign policy, there are five elements we should keep in mind: military, political, economic, historical, and cultural. By focusing on these five factors, we can expand our knowledge base, during graduate school, in-country training (ICT), and in all future FAO assignments.

From the military perspective, it is not enough to know what is happening in our basic branch; we must also be current on all Army programs, from weapons systems development and fielding to tactical and strategic doctrine to training. Additionally, we must have general knowledge of what corresponding trends may be occurring in our sister services. At the very least, we must know which expert to call for the answer when our host nation counterpart asks the question.

More often than not, politics is at the heart of foreign policy decision-making. It is critical to know who the players are and who affects policy formulation. This is true of both the US and host country's political systems. We must know the respective roles of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government, where the military fits in, and which political action groups (lobbyists) affect which actions and how. We must be cognizant of the full range of governmental and non-governmental agencies involved in the development of the policies we may be directed to implement.

Although we are not expected to become economists, we must understand the economic system of our host country well enough to project the impact of an economic down turn or boom on our host country and within the region. For instance, say your country's wealth is measured in terms of the amount of oil it can sell on the world market and it is buying a new major weapons system, such as the M1A2 Abrams tank. What happens if there is a world oil glut? How does this affect the country's ability to make its quarterly payments to the US or to a US defense contractor? What happens to its foreign balance of payments? The US Ambassador asks you for a military assessment of the situation. You must have the right answers. A "real world" situation exists today with the economic state of Indonesia and the repercussions being felt within the Asian-Pacific region and globally.

For most countries, a knowledge of the past helps to understand the present and to determine the future. The history of a country and its role within its region and on the world stage helps us to understand current dynamics. For example, historically what has been one of Tsarist and Soviet Russia's major foreign policy goals? To gain a warm water port. How? By gaining control of the Bosphoros and Dardanelles Straits from Turkey. The Crimean War was just one of the many battles fought in the "Great Game" by the major Western powers to prevent Russia from realizing its goal. Turkey continues to temper its relations with Russia today based on this knowledge and experience. We must do similarly in viewing the historical relationships of our host country with the US and regionally. The fifth element deals with understanding the myriad cultural aspects of our country and region. We learn the customs and traditions, the religious practices, the taboos and what is accepted. We learn the physical and non-physical methods of greeting and showing respect, how to sit on the floor without showing the soles of our shoes, how to manage time where time makes little difference, and how to conduct business without alienating our host. We learn these things not only to keep ourselves out of trouble, but also to help our official visitors and military bosses who visit our country. Our knowledge and expertise enables us to prevent social blunders from sparking international incidents.

In short, we become area experts.

The road to becoming an area expert is long - for some of us, it is a continual learning process. The new FAO has a three leg initial training cycle: language, graduate school, and in-country training. Language training is the key to the other two legs. It enables us to begin our study and quest for knowledge; it opens doors; it enables us to build enduring personal relationships with our host nation counterparts.

The purpose of advanced civil schooling is to build a solid academic base of knowledge comprised of foreign policy, area, and language studies. It allows time for research, analysis, synthesis, and in-depth study and reading about the target country, the region, and the many aspects of applicable foreign policy. Since language skills are perishable - if you don't use it, you lose it - follow-on language study is critical and must be incorporated into the graduate school curriculum.

In-country training provides the opportunity to put everything together in a real world setting. This is where the FAO first tests his or her skills and meets the foreign challenges. All the hard work from language study and graduate school pays off as the FAO ventures out on his or her own, often without a safety net. Whether in the host nation's staff college or assisting the Army Attache or on the road, everything learned to date comes into play.

For FAOs who do ICT followed by graduate school, a very unique opportunity exists. The prudent FAO would be wise to keep the aforementioned five foreign policy elements in mind during his or her in-country time with an eye toward graduate school. While traveling within the host country and the region, talking with the US Ambassadors and the members of the country teams, and visiting host country civilian and military leaders, unique insights and information can be gained for inclusion in the required trip reports. In turn, these reports will serve as an invaluable primary, first hand source for use during graduate school. In essence, this is an extra year of hands on graduate field study. With a little advanced planning and organization, the accumulated trip reports can serve as the basis for several graduate papers, to include a thesis.

Whether FAOs serve as attaches, security assistance officers, political military officers, intelligence analysts, military liaison officers, or educators, the common denominator is the requirement to understand and use one's knowledge of US foreign policy. It is the building block for dealing with the host country, with other US governmental and non-governmental agencies, and in accomplishing the overall mission.

Hopefully, the opening questions have been answered to your satisfaction by now. It is up to you to use your FAO training time and assignments wisely. If so, you will soon master the "foreign" in FAO.

LTC Gendrolis is the Director of the FAO Program at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. He is a Middle East FAO with numerous exotic assignments both in the US and in "foreign" lands.

1998, Foreign Area Officer Association
Springfield, Virginia
Maintained by LTC Steve Gotowicki.
http://www.faoa.org