Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Selecting and Vetting Indigenous Leaders.

摘要

Determining who is the right indigenous leader for U.S. forces to work with in a complex environment during irregular and unconventional warfare is a complicated endeavor, affected by countless factors. Selecting, vetting, and influencing indigenous leaders in foreign countries has been a key task of U.S. Special Operations Forces since its inception, but to date Special Operations Forces often struggles with mastering this, as evidenced by recent experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. The primary aim of this thesis is to improve this capability. To assist with the future selection and vetting of indigenous leaders, this thesis introduces a leader selection heuristic. It is the authors contention is that to find the right individual requires correctly identifying particular attributes, features, and behaviors in both the individual and the environment.