What is JCISFA, what is SFA, and how does it fit in the greater scheme of things-PT 1

[Rob Thornton]

Hi Steve,
Great points. I do need to clarify something though for people who might pick up the thread without reading the original posts. You'd referred to "JCISFA" teams. JCISFA does not have the capacity to send out TTs from inside the organization itself - as mentioned, we are only about 25 folks.

Like other individual augmentees, these folks who will go out to ministerial level advisory positions come from somewhere else, and go to somewhere else ( assigned to MNSTC-I). They are not assigned to JCISFA. Like other advisory and SFA efforts, we may touch them to different degrees, often indirectly through our effects on the institutional side (like helping to est. a POI specifically for them); or more directly in our support to the operational side - but its a misnomer to call them "JCISFA" teams. If you remember the "BASF" commercial a few years back that "At BASF we don't make________, we just make _________ better" - that might be closer to what we do.

On the support to operational units, we do work with deploying units on challenges such as SFA planning - which could get you to how you might organize to best support ongoing SFA efforts in your AOR, or to how you might take on a larger chunk of the SFA mission. Primarily we are focused on supporting the SFA missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, again with 25 folks - you have to establish some priorities, but we have recognized the need to consider other areas as SFA as a way to build partner capacity and meet other policy objectives in many other areas.

Its probably also good idea to talk about the relationship with the various service training centers. Although we have "Joint" in our name, that does not put us at the top of a training hierarchy. Right after the word "Joint" is the word "center", which for those who have looked out into the world of centers, there is generally not a great deal of authority associated with it. This is a conscious decision when est. a center - you want them un-encumbered to do those things which a center can do. Center then, does not equal command - once you throw command responsibilities into an organization, you change the fundamental nature of what that organization is, and what it does, and how what it does is perceived. What we have done though, is serve as an integrator for education, best practices, etc. - we connect people and efforts so that people have a better understanding of what works and why, and what does not work and why. One of the recent things JCISFA did was bring representation from the various advisory training centers together to talk about ways they could leverage each other in near real time - so the advisors that go through the various service sponsored centers will have had the best and most up to date information.

Another example are the interviews we conduct with TT members, with GOs, and with BCT members about SFA as they saw it during their operational deployment (and how they might see it now), then we figure out how to work that into a product that informs the JIIM community, Ex. I'm working on a SFA Case study that interviews not only folks assigned to TTs in an AOR, but to members of the BCT, members of the higher echelon CMD, members of the PRT, and some of the folks from DoJ who worked advising Iraqi prisons. I'll take all that and synthesize it so what comes out will hopefully be a holistic look at SFA in that area for that period of time that shows the complexity of the SFA environment. The goal of that effort would be that when someone deploying, someone working institutional issues, some one working policy, or just an average civilian considering the war picks it up, they will have a better understanding of the challenges of conducting SFA simultaneously with offensive, defensive and other stability tasks.

Now I want to go back and look at your post in depth, I feel like there are some important things that should be talked about - I just needed to provide a little bit more info on this side of the original thread before doing so.

Best, Rob

[Rob Thornton]

Steve,
You touched on some real considerations that leaders should consider when conducting (before or during) SFA. Since we're talking about assistance to the security sector, one of the first considerations may be to ask ourselves what we hope to accomplish by BPC with the HN? That is probably a 2 part question - the first is how does it help the United States achieve FP objectives, and the second is defining the nature of the SFA the partner requires and desires?

Tackling the first question - about how it furthers our FP - on the surface that probably seems overtly pragmatic. However, given the nature of our political system, and the unpredictable nature of war, the the risk and benefits for using military means to achieve a policy object need to be considered up front and incorporated into strategic communications that consider the domestic, international and regional audiences. Also to be considered with regard to the first question is how is a bi-lateral (or as part of a multi-lateral) SFA effort is integrated into a larger regional picture and potentially as part of a grand strategy where all the elements of national power are being leveraged to create a more enduring effect that justifies the means. We could be talking about a few ministerial level advisors, the routine visits by an ODA, FMS (Foreign Military Sales), or the use of some other emerging TAA (Train, Advise & Assist) effort such as the Marine Corps SC-MAGTF, or the Army TMAAG-F.

The second question is about working with the partner nation's political leadership and also to our other regional partners who have to consider how new capabilities will be integrated into a regional outlook (there could be an existing collective security arrangement, or something informal). Not just in terms of changing the balance of military power, but increasingly, how that partner's ability to govern itself and support the domestic RoL effect other states and interests in the region. Ideally we'd support and facilitate regional diplomatic talks aimed at improving security and furthering stability from a regional perspective.

Once we get the strategic SFA/SSR framework established, I think we can better address important operational and tactical questions about the level of SFA, what types of enablers are needed to support the SFA effort (be they financial, cultural, technical), and how the conditions in the operational and tactical environment can best be overcome or mitigated. We've learned (and continue to learn) a great deal in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines and the HOA - it could also be argued we've had to relearn a great deal of it. The question is how we use the knowledge to inform current and future efforts to achieve our and our partner's goals.

Best, Rob

[CR6]

Right after the word "Joint" is the word "center", which for those who have looked out into the world of centers, there is generally not a great deal of authority associated with it. This is a conscious decision when est. a center - you want them un-encumbered to do those things which a center can do. Center then, does not equal command - once you throw command responsibilities into an organization, you change the fundamental nature of what that organization is, and what it does, and how what it does is perceived. What we have done though, is serve as an integrator for education, best practices, etc. - we connect people and efforts so that people have a better understanding of what works and why, and what does not work and why. One of the recent things JCISFA did was bring representation from the various advisory training centers together to talk about ways they could leverage each other in near real time - so the advisors that go through the various service sponsored centers will have had the best and most up to date information.

Rob has your organization tied in at all with TRADOC's Army Training Support Center? I worked there from 02-04. Although most commonly associated with running the Reimer Digital Library and the Army Correspondence Course program, ATSC was doing some interesting stuff with distributed learning and info sharing that might prove useful to JCISFA's efforts. ATSC has a CAC LNO, BTW.

[Rob Thornton]

Rob has your organization tied in at all with TRADOC's Army Training Support Center? I worked there from 02-04. Although most commonly associated with running the Reimer Digital Library and the Army Correspondence Course program, ATSC was doing some interesting stuff with distributed learning and info sharing that might prove useful to JCISFA's efforts. ATSC has a CAC LNO, BTW.

I checked into it today with the lead on "Advisor University", he gave me thumbs up that they are being leveraged, and that one of their spin offs is helping out too.
Best, Rob

[nichols]

There's a JCISFA DoD Interagency Advisor Working Group on 27-28 October at Quantico.......anyone have some scoop on this?

[Rob Thornton]

Hi Nichols,
This is the second WG we've hosted like this. The first was focused on DoD training centers. The goal was to cross level information, TTPs for the training of advisors and cross leveling knowledge on resources. It worked out very well and helped us establish a community of practice for the various TT centers. It went very well due in no small part to the energy of the folks from the centers and their desire to do what they do better. The result is a web based presence that allows each of the centers to share and update their POIs on all the topics they cover, as well as come up on the net to raise issues. It gives JCISFA better visibility on service and joint issues, as well as allowing us to provide the community with anything that comes our way, or the results from the surveys, knew knowledge, interviews, case studies, etc. that we conduct. MSG Mike Beemer deserves allot of credit for the hard work he did in making it happen.
This one will attempt to extend the same type of benefits to the broader JIIM community (Joint, Inter-Agency, Inter-Governmental, Multi-National) community. We are likely to have as many PRT related training center folks (there are multiple sites for this, just as there are multiple TT training sites) as straight transition team trainers. The list of invitees is pretty long, and while it will focus on assisting the "trainers" there will also be some relevant topics for those trying to understand how their agencies can set better policies.
We decided on Quantico because of its proximity to D.C. so more people could make it. For many agencies, 2 days is a significant investment, and closer allows them more flexibility with their limited personnel. While Quantico is the home of HQ MC, it is also the location of the FBI Academy.
If you are in the TT, PRT or advisor training business and would like to attend, please PM me. Nichols, shoot me your .mil email addy via PM and I'll provide more info on what the 2 days are looking like, and the invitee list.

Best, Rob

[OfTheTroops]

How has any of this changed in the last two years? This is a very important group and I would love to see the update. I will read the post (as I only scanned it).

[Hacksaw]

I would recommend going to the JCISFA website https://jcisfa.jcs.mil/Public/Index.aspx not certain, but I think Rob has moved on from JCISFA. If you can't find the POC/info you need feel free to message me, since I'm in vicinity of JCISFA