Changing Tires on the Fly

[SWJED]

10 September Foreign Policy Research Institute E-Note - Changing Tires on the Fly: The Marines and Postconflict Stability Ops (http://www.fpri.org/enotes/20060910.military.hoffman.marinespostconflictstabi lityops.html) by Frank Hoffman.


In early 2005 a British-American research team sponsored by FPRI commenced a study of British and U.S. approaches to stabilization and reconstruction (S&R) operations as demonstrated in Iraq. Their complete findings will be presented at a briefing to be held on September 19 in Washington, DC. At that time, two monograph-length reports will be released, one offering British perspectives (“Succeeding in Phase IV: British Perspectives on the U.S. Effort to Stabilize and Reconstruct Iraq,” by Andrew Garfield), the other American perspectives. This essay summarizes the second report.

FPRI hopes that these studies will help U.S. military and civilian planners to refine a set of best practices and develop a set of principles or considerations, which can form the basis of a coherent and integrated national level framework for S&R operations. FPRI acknowledges the research contributions of King’s College in London and the Terrorism Research Center in northern Virginia, and the financial support provided by the Smith Richardson Foundation.

The 2:00-3:30 pm Tuesday, Sept. 19 briefing will be held at the Phoenix Park Hotel, 520 N. Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC. It is open to the public but reservations are required. It will also be video webcast. To reserve to attend the briefing or for information on viewing the briefing online, email lux@fpri.org...

[selil]

But as General Mattis has remarked, “doctrine is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” More than formal doctrine, military leaders need to be broadly educated and prepared to adapt their operational modes, planning processes and even their organizations on the fly to meet the unique circumstances they find on the ground.

Currently there is an underlying rumbling in higher education and the ivory halls of academia. I see the same rumblings in business and things military too. Those rumblings are driving more towards the scholar warrior and less toward the silo thinking techno-savant. There may be an impending renaissance in flexible thinking skills on the horizon. Though I don’t see generals quoting John Dewey we can hope for a certain amount of thinking skills to become apparent. The criticisms of the policy makers and indecisive nature alliterated in regards to strategy appear to also be indictments of what could be called concrete thinking. With advancements of the industrial age and the continuation of the information age has come a specificity of thought and task oriented nature that restricts the freedom and responsibility of thinking and reasoning skills. The same agile thinking that is lauded for successes by the Marines is not reflected by the command authority.

[SWJED]

I will be attending the FPRI briefing on the 19th in DC and will post a summary here and on the SWJ.

[jcustis]

Currently there is an underlying rumbling in higher education and the ivory halls of academia. I see the same rumblings in business and things military too. Those rumblings are driving more towards the scholar warrior and less toward the silo thinking techno-savant. There may be an impending renaissance in flexible thinking skills on the horizon. Though I don’t see generals quoting John Dewey we can hope for a certain amount of thinking skills to become apparent. The criticisms of the policy makers and indecisive nature alliterated in regards to strategy appear to also be indictments of what could be called concrete thinking. With advancements of the industrial age and the continuation of the information age has come a specificity of thought and task oriented nature that restricts the freedom and responsibility of thinking and reasoning skills. The same agile thinking that is lauded for successes by the Marines is not reflected by the command authority.

It's reassuring to know that LtGen Mattis is at the helm with I MEF. Most, if not all, of the mindset concepts that shaped our return in 2004 came from him. A true warrior monk...

[marct]

Hi Selil,


Currently there is an underlying rumbling in higher education and the ivory halls of academia. I see the same rumblings in business and things military too. Those rumblings are driving more towards the scholar warrior and less toward the silo thinking techno-savant. There may be an impending renaissance in flexible thinking skills on the horizon.

Personally, I would hope so, although I sometimes despair of that happening.


Though I don’t see generals quoting John Dewey we can hope for a certain amount of thinking skills to become apparent. The criticisms of the policy makers and indecisive nature alliterated in regards to strategy appear to also be indictments of what could be called concrete thinking.

I would agree with that! I might go a step farther and point towards an interesting hole in the perceptual map that is used - a decisive lack of historical knowledge, especially of non-Western European history. If I could require any reading from current policy makers, it would be A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem[I] by Fulcher of Chartres and [I]The Alexiad by Anna Comnenus with Runciman's History of the Crusades tossed in for an overview and, maybe, some Henri Pirenne for dessert.


With advancements of the industrial age and the continuation of the information age has come a specificity of thought and task oriented nature that restricts the freedom and responsibility of thinking and reasoning skills. The same agile thinking that is lauded for successes by the Marines is not reflected by the command authority.

We are in an interesting time period, as far as general cultural trends are concerned. The organizational characteristics of the Industrial Age - e.g. task oriented, mass production, cybernetic systems, etc. - are still applied to situations where the content and forms are not applicable.

At a popular cultural level, there is a lot of fuzzy thinking and beliefs about the inherent goodness of all peoples. The meme of "they will agree with us if we only understand them" appears to dominate a lot of the thinking I am seeing at my university at any rate (then again, I am in Canada...).

Marc

[marct]

It's reassuring to know that LtGen Mattis is at the helm with I MEF. Most, if not all, of the mindset concepts that shaped our return in 2004 came from him. A true warrior monk...

And also someone who, I am convinced, has read Musashi :)

Marc

[Tom Odom]

At a popular cultural level, there is a lot of fuzzy thinking and beliefs about the inherent goodness of all peoples. The meme of "they will agree with us if we only understand them" appears to dominate a lot of the thinking I am seeing at my university at any rate (then again, I am in Canada...).

Can I get an "Amen?"

Seriously that trait goes well beyond Canada, Marc. And it goes hand in glove with stunned disbelief or iconclastic denial when such naivete is exposed to reality. I recently tried to explain to a friend why I say that the capacity for genocide is the reciprocal of man's capacity for mercy. They are in my mind very much a Yin and Yang, which define humanity.

As I recall from my long distant undergraduate days as an anthro minor, there was a case study set I believe in a Latin American country on a small tribe that had set lying as desirable trait, one emulated and rewarded in the limited cultural setting in which it occurred. Yet I have heard so many times, educated people state catergorically that lying is a "universally" condemned trait. That to me is what distinguished between "educated" and "learned." Kind of like what some said regarding religion in Rwanda: the Church was strong but Christianity was not.

Best
Tom

[marct]

Can I get an "Amen?"

:cool: I'll see if I can get my students to do that as well (evil grin).


Seriously that trait goes well beyond Canada, Marc. And it goes hand in glove with stunned disbelief or iconclastic denial when such naivete is exposed to reality. I recently tried to explain to a friend why I say that the capacity for genocide is the reciprocal of man's capacity for mercy. They are in my mind very much a Yin and Yang, which define humanity.

Oh, too true! I tend to call that "theological epistemologies" - very popular with the Marxists :rolleyes: . I remember years ago, during my undergrad, reading a Gnostic book called Divine Pomander (part of the Corpus Hermeticum). Once you got past the symbolism, the content and ideas were absolutely fascinating - things like "all opposites are the same", etc. Nowadays, I just say that reality doesn't have zero's or infinities.


As I recall from my long distant undergraduate days as an anthro minor, there was a case study set I believe in a Latin American country on a small tribe that had set lying as desirable trait, one emulated and rewarded in the limited cultural setting in which it occurred. Yet I have heard so many times, educated people state catergorically that lying is a "universally" condemned trait. That to me is what distinguished between "educated" and "learned." Kind of like what some said regarding religion in Rwanda: the Church was strong but Christianity was not.

LOLOL. I think my favorite ethnographic example is from Papua New Guinea. There was a particular tribe of head hunters that had been studied for over 50 years and, unlike every other tribe of head hunters, there was no apparent rhymn or reason to their expeditions. The last couple to study them had been there several times and were supposed to go back, but only the wife could (something about supervision and teaching duties). Anyway, while the wife was back there, she ended up slipping on a mountain trail and falling over a 1000 feet to her death. Anyway, the husband went into a grief spin and just couldn't be brought out of it. For over a year, he couldn't look at any of his research material. Finally, he managed to get to the point where he had to clean out her office, and all he felt was an overpowering urge to kill the chair of his department. That's when the lightbulb went on. He checked through all of the field notes they had so painstakingly gathered and realized that every chief who had launched a head hunting expedition had had a close family member die in the recent past. He had, after over 50 years, cracked one of the major mysteries in Cultural Anthropology - headhunting, for the Ilongit, was a form of grief psychotherapy.

One of the strengths of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, as a species, is that we are infinately adaptable within the limits of our biology. Every culture abhors "murder", but "murder" is always defined as "unlawful killing". It's the same with every one of the "Deadly Sins". (Actually, I remember a friend of mine, Jerome Barkow, who did a really great presentation about that... :) )

To my mind, "educated" means that you have been "inculcated with tribal gnosis" - i.e. you have been brainwashed into perceptions based on your cultural matrix. "Learned" means that not only are you "educated", even if you may not have the formal accrediation, but that you are also able to produce "new" knowledge within your culture/symbol system. Personally, I prefer someone who is "Wise"; defined as stepping beyond the limits of your culture to look at the face of reality as best you can perceive it. I think Socrates said it best, when he said that "I am the wisest man alive, for I know that I know nothing."

Marc