another request for help: Master's thesis

[ICResearch]

Hello all,
I’ve just introduced myself over in the new members intro thread.

And I’ve surfed around this site a bit, getting a bit "lost" in its many pages.

I’d now like to explain my reason for being here and ask for your assistance.
I am a student of the German department at the University College of Cork, Ireland, where I am writing my Master's thesis. One of the modules offered by the department is Intercultural Communication, which I have chosen as my subject area. To be more precise, I am focusing on the communication between military and aid organizations (credit goes to Dr. Donna Winslow for the idea.)

From my research I know that a lot of work is being done on intercultural communication for military and business dealings with foreign nationals. What apparently is missing is intercultural training preparing members of the military and aid workers, from Oxfam to UNICEF, to communicate effectively with each other.

What I am in search of here are the experiences of men and women who have had direct contact to such organizations in their foreign deployments, as I would like to have some of my own empirical data.

For this purpose, I’ve written a questionnaire, considering and re-considering the questions. I’ll go ahead and post the link, in case anyone would like to give me some feedback on it. Participants would also be great :)

I hope that what I’m asking is appropriate, and I would be happy to answer any questions.

The survey is here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0D6TFdtohhqaDgyntgv8qQ_3d_3d

Thanking you in advance for your help.
Best wishes,
Jennifer Holt
Co. Cork, Ireland

[Abu Suleyman]

I'm curious what this has to do with German?

[kotkinjs1]

Jennifer,
I've completed your survey and I think that's a very good idea. Civ-Mil relations and intercultural understanding between the military and especially NGOs is becoming critical. As the re-branded global war on terror rightfully morphs from a kinetic, kill-the-bad-guy mission to a mission of determining how to provide good governance, enable better agricultural practices, microeconomics, education, etc., intercultural communication will be key. In the military, we're starting to see the goodness in the "3D" concept of Diplomacy-Development-Defense (really 'Security' but that doesn't make for a snappy acronym). The military and NGOs like USAID won't be able to play well together if we don't understand one another or maintain destructive preconceptions.
Good luck with y our thesis and your studies.
- Jeremy Kotkin

[John T. Fishel]

I really wasn't going to take it as someone who is retired military but I wanted to see what you had done and comment; the only way to do so was to take it. I'm the old guy -age 67, LTC. I've also done a bit of survey research in the past. General impression is that it is pretty good. I think you may well want responses from guys like me but you need to have a way of differentiating among different levels and types of experience. For the US military you may want to ask whether your respondent is active, reserve component, and/or retired. It is also relevant to your research whether you are dealing with Foreign Area Officers (FAO) - I was a FAO - Special Forces or other particular branches w/in the army or another service. Both FAO and SF require significant intercultural training as do PSYOP and Civil Affairs to a lesser extent. There is also some intercultural education in the Army Command & General Staff College curriculum although that varies with when a student was there and how much he paid attention. The essence of this critique is that you have a moving target longitudinally. PM me if you would like to carry on this discussion in more detail.

Cheers

JohnT

[John T. Fishel]

dates back in the US military to the 1980s in Latin America where we used the notion to describe our policy in El Salvador and the rest of the region. Check out the 1984 report of the Kissinger Commission on Central America. In 1986 or 87 we added a fourth D - drugs after Pres Reagan published his NSDD defining drugs as a national security issue.

The first linkage I know of between the Ds was made simultaneously by the Brazilian ESG (Escola Superior da Guerra) and the Peruvian CAEM (Centro de Altos Estudios Militares) in the 1960s where they both noted the connection between defense and development. The CAEM even made extensive use of the slogan, No hay defensa sin desarrollo (There is no defense without development). The practical implications of this, however, were quite different for the two military governments as the Brazilians followed a largely enemy centric approach to COIN while the Peruvians (during the Velasco govt from 1968 - 76) followed a population centric approach. That did change during the early years of Sendero Luminoso as the army reacted to the Velasco years and adopted initially an Argentine/French enemy centric approach without much success.

Cheers

JohnT

[ICResearch]

I'm curious what this has to do with German?

Hi Abu,
Good question!
Well, I'm attempting 50% of my research on the Bundeswehr and German NGOs.
By the way, do any of you have any Bundeswehr buddies? Since I don't have a brother-in-law there, it's slightly more difficult to convince folks to talk to me.

[davidbfpo]

If I recall correctly the German contingent in Afghanistan have a website, which may have featured here on the recent thread on the Bundeswehr and they will have a public affairs contact point.

Secondly, try writing to the London-based military attache and this weblink helps: http://www.london.diplo.de/Vertretung/london/en/02/Ambassador__and__Departments/Military__office__seite.html

Third, there are a number of German academics and centres who specialise in Afghanistan, see the list on: http://afghanistan-analyst.org/default.aspx They may point you in the right direction.

Isn't there a website for NGO's active in Afghanistan? Maybe hidden in this: http://afghanistan-analyst.org/blogs.aspx which has a NGO listing.

Good luck.

davidbfpo

[ICResearch]

I just want to thank everyone for their input and for the 7 questionnaires I've gotten.
If I haven't responded to something, it's only because I'm trying not to drop any of the several balls I'm juggling. Will be in touch!

[Red Rat]

I have a german brigade on my doorstep :D It deploys to Afghanistan next year so they are starting to consider some of the issues you will probably be interested in. I can probably get you an 'in'. PM me with what you need.

RR

[ICResearch]

Thanks guys.

Basically what I've done is to create a questionnaire for the military and one for the NGOs, asking basically the same questions. I am looking for so-called critical incidents and an idea of what is already being done in their intercultural training. The questionnaires exist in English and German.

Today I heard back from Concern and yesterday Kinder Nothilfe offered some assistance. Let's see what that brings.

Where do you guys find the time to keep up with the threads here?