Hi Rob,
You know, Wilf is absolutely right in saying that a lot of the basic actions are cross-cultural and not that hard; they just require a little thinking through. Also, another point that I should have made clear is that narratives are all about risk reduction and predictability, which was a point made by RA.Originally Posted by Rob Thornton
Maybe one way to get the training down would be to mix some "market research" with some "combat ops". Let's take an SOP for, say, a cordon and search; run a bunch of volunteers (both Americans as your control group and US supporters from the host nation) through it and get their reactions to it. Where it would diverge from the normal market research is that you would then start pulling apart their emotional response and their explanations / interpretations of what they were feeling and how they were understanding it.
It's really hard to select actions unless you know what the effects are and, all too often it seems to me, training (and research) concentrates solely on the physical effects of an action and leaves out the mental and emotional effects.
Marc
Bookmarks