The Rise of Military Diplomacy:
New Roles for the Defense Attaché

By COL David Potts, USAF

A dramatic change took place in the Defense Attache System (DAS) this past decade with little fanfare. The scope and diversity of defense attache (DATT) involvement in U. S. programs abroad increased to the point where our attaches have become full participants in security-related initiatives and activities. This occurred so rapidly and naturally that few have noticed. It is only when we examine what attaches were doing at the beginning of the last decade and what they are doing now that the change becomes clear.

The traditional missions of the military attaches assigned to our embassies are to observe military conditions and developments, advise the ambassadors, and represent the Department of Defense (DoD). Our attaches have been accomplishing these missions for over one hundred years. With some exceptions, they were expected to take secondary, sometimes mainly ceremonial, roles in embassy affairs. They performed the necessary political-military task of explaining military things to political officials and political things to military officials. They represented the U.S. and DoD at host country ceremonies and meetings. Not the least of all, they became extremely knowledgeable and competent experts on the host country's military forces and national security concerns.

The duties expected of our attaches began to broaden prior to the 1990's. The DoD's security assistance programs, ranging from U.S.-sponsored military training courses to sales of military equipment, expanded into friendly but non-allied countries with little or no presence of security assistance officials. This caused DoD and the regional commands to ask our Defense Attache Offices (DAOs) to help out. As security assistance personnel augmented DAOs and new Security Assistance Offices (SAOs) were added to some embassies, many ambassadors and defense officials wanted to be able to turn to one local point of contact for all defense policy matters. The current system of designating one in-country military officer already responsible for other duties be designated U.S. Defense Representative came into place gradually. The majority of our defense attaches now have this responsibility of coordinating administrative and security matters for U.S. officials pertaining to DoD personnel associated with embassies.

With Operation DESERT SHIELD/STORM, the end of the Cold War, and the increase in our worldwide defense engagement programs, the trend of broadened defense attache responsibilities switched into fast-forward. During the campaign to protect Saudi Arabia from aggression and force Iraqi invaders from Kuwait, defense attaches became pivotal to coalition building and maintenance because of their knowledge of and relationships with senior host country military officials. The term "nation building" began to be used in official dispatches to our embassies in the countries of the former Warsaw Pact and the former Soviet Union at about the same time. Instead of being on watch for a potential invasion of Western Europe spearheaded through Czechoslovakia, our attaches in Prague made arrangements for Czech tank commanders to attend the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. Farther to the east, the DATT in our newly opened DAO in the newly independent country of Kazakhstan organized a joint training exercise for Special Forces "Green Berets" with Kazakh soldiers. Late in the decade, at the request of U.S. European Command, more DAOs were opened in Sub-Sahara Africa to help put "eyes and ears" close to potential hotspots and assist the Commander-in-Chief (CINC) in humanitarian relief missions.

Defense attaches have now become key members of Country Teams and recognized heads of military sections in the embassies. Country Teams, headed by ambassadors, are composed of senior representatives of federal agencies represented in country. Composition of the Country Team depends on the size of the mission and our relations with the host country, but at the minimum there is representation from the political, economic, military, commercial, and public affairs sections. All of the sections are in theory equal; but as the old saying goes, some are more equal than others. With the rise in the last decade of what may be referred to as "military diplomacy," our defense attaches have moved to the front row as principal advisors. On many occasions they have served temporarily as acting deputy chiefs of mission (number two position in the embassy) and even in some instances as acting charge d'affaires (Chief of Mission in the ambassador's absence).

The defense attache's relationship with the regional command has similarly changed. Not only does the regional J2 (Intelligence) look to defense attaches for information the J3 (Operations), J4 (Logistics), and J5 (Policy) look to them for leadership in helping orchestrate many regional programs and initiatives. These include senior level exchange visits, military-to-military contact events, training exercises, equipment transfers, and negotiations for temporary basing. Years ago the commanders-in-chief would rely solely on the formal tasking system to answer their most pressing questions concerning a particular country. With the rise of military diplomacy and the increased access our defense attaches have with senior host country defense officials, it is not uncommon for the CINCs and key staff to call the defense attache and talk directly to him or her. "What does the DATT say?" is a common question heard during regional crisis briefings.

The rise in military diplomacy means that today's defense attache is more important than ever to U.S. interests abroad. It also means that he (or she) is challenged to keep everyone - including the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the regional CINC, and the ambassador - well advised, represented, and informed. Defense attaches no longer have the luxury of sufficient time to do their work in supporting roles. It is now a fast-paced, electronically connected world and defense attaches need to be prepared and equipped to meet the growing needs of our national decision-makers.

Two tasks needing attention come to mind. The first is to make sure that all of us in greater DIA do all we can to expeditiously provide proper time-saving process and equipment support to all of our 127 defense attache offices. Every moment we can save field personnel is a moment they can devote to actively supporting U.S. interests. Second, all of us should encourage the military services to fully support their foreign area officer (FAO) programs in producing highly qualified attache candidates in this era of constrained human resources. While all of our defense attaches are volunteers from the military services, the position of defense attache is not for amateurs. Those who have the greatest chances of serving with distinction are fluent in languages, at ease in foreign cultures, and have previous experience serving abroad and in political-military positions. If we are successful in these two tasks we can help keep the Defense Attache System strong and well positioned for future changes and challenges.

Colonel David Potts, USAF, is Deputy Director of the Office of Operations in DIA's Directorate for Operations. He served as Assistant Air Attache in Moscow, as a Foreign Liaison Officer in Washington, and as our DATT in Prague at the time the Czech Republic entered NATO.

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