Center for Irregular Warfare

[SWJED]

The new USMC Center for Irregular Warfare has recently posted their web page.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Irregular Warfare 101 slide 32. You're being outreached.

[SWJED]

Irregular Warfare 101 slide 32. You're being outreached.

... we are being outreached. I know the Director, Col Dan Kelly. Smart guy with lots of operational experience. The SWJ and SWC has a good rep and we have a very knowledgeable membership here on the Council. We have a lot of lurkers, many are working IW / COIN / Small Wars issues as part of their normal course of duty.

[Hacksaw]

I resemble that comment. As someone who works in an organization with COIN in its name, I find it is valuable in being able to participate in a forum like SWJ with least a veneer of anonymity.

[Tom Odom]

I resemble that comment. As someone who works in an organization with COIN in its name, I find it is valuable in being able to participate in a forum like SWJ with least a veneer of anonymity.

or offer ice cream cones to the unwary

[Ron Humphrey]

... we are being outreached. I know the Director, Col Dan Kelly. Smart guy with lots of operational experience. The SWJ and SWC has a good rep and we have a very knowledgeable membership here on the Council. We have a lot of lurkers, many are working IW / COIN / Small Wars issues as part of their normal course of duty.

Definately better than being completely ignored.

Oh sorry, where's the cheese with wine thread?

[redbullets]

The IO/NGO bullet on the Outreach section of the slide reminds me of an anecdote for those who are periodically tasked with such a duty.

Last month I brought several representatives of an OSD office and two Combatant Commands to a meeting with some UN and NGO folks. They had been moving down a road on a project for some time, and had reached out to some NGOs to help guide what they'd been doing.

Problem was, the NGOs they'd reached out to were anything but representative of the broad relief and development community, and had fed the DoD folks some bad poop. These particular DoD guys are bright, open, and smarter than your average bear when it comes to CIMIC/CMCOORD, but had fallen into a not-unusal trap - finding a couple of seemingly "friendly" NGOs (who in all likelihood would be happy to receive funding from SOLIC or other DoD sources) and accepting these NGOs as representative of the cooperation/coordination norms and philosophical sensibilities of the wider relief/development continuum.

My DoD guests got a friendly, informative earfull from the UN and NGO folks they met with, and it was quite a bit different from what they'd been told by the two or three fringe NGOs they'd previously dealt with. They are now back reevaluating work that they've spent quite a bit of money on because the UN and NGOs are clearly not going to react to the outputs of this work in the way the fringe NGOs had said they would.

So, some advice to anyone tasked with engaging with the NGO community - seek out stakeholders like InterAction's Disaster Response office or UN OCHA's CMCOORD office when taking the temperature of the herd of cats we call NGOs. I'm sure many of you are savvy to this, but there are still smart, experienced stakeholders out there who might latch onto some of my NGO "colleagues" who tell them what they want to hear. Better to hear the unpleasant truth than get shined on at a cost into the millions.

Cheers,

[Tom Odom]

So, some advice to anyone tasked with engaging with the NGO community - seek out stakeholders like InterAction's Disaster Response office or UN OCHA's CMCOORD office when taking the temperature of the herd of cats we call NGOs. I'm sure many of you are savvy to this, but there are still smart, experienced stakeholders out there who might latch onto some of my NGO "colleagues" who tell them what they want to hear. Better to hear the unpleasant truth than get shined on at a cost into the millions.

From one cat hearder to another, great post, especially the last. I will not name NGOs but some spend huge amounts of cash for slick spokesmen who have absolutely mastered the 5 second sound byte. Sad to say but many of the latter come from within government or are part of their political party herd. They hold gov jobs when their party is in and then they sell themselves on the outside when their party is out.

Post more, Joe!

Tom