Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
Not exactly true--that's exactly what the regional centers like the Marshall Center and the Africa Center for Strategic Studies do. They realized that for civilian control of the military to work, you have to have civilians who understand defense issues. So they include elected officials, civil servants, and representatives of civil society in their programs.
And to add to the point, it is very much the role of the country team regardless of composition to engage the conuntry's leadership regarding such assistance. We regrettably have a spotty record in this area; some CTs do it very well, others don't and it is NOT merely a question of DoD versus State. Some of the worst offenders in this arena that I knew were military. Most were on the pure security assistance track and the fell into the trap of "we don't do diplomacy, the ambassador does," which is absolute horse crap. Everyone on a CT is engaged in diplomacy because they have foreign counterparts. Part of the issue is the way that SAO duties have been taught in the past with a centric core of bean counter versus operational purpose.

Tom