Enhancing Security Force Assistance: Advisor Selection, Training, and Employment

摘要

The United States has employed military advisors since our founding as a nation. The U.S. military may have captured the lessons learned from throughout its history of association with advisory missions, but mismatches remain in our current Department of Defense (DoD) directives, doctrine, and guidance regarding the execution of Security Force Assistance (SFA) operations --specifically in relation to the selection, training, and employment of advisors, key executors of this strategic mission. The U.S. experience in Vietnam and resulting lessons learned (or not learned) from contemporary SFA operations form a basis for improvements for the current identification, preparation, and utilization of advisors serving in overseas contingency operations (OCO). This research project recommends how the military should select and assess advisors. It further recommends a training program for them and proposes that they can be best employed as part of a unified, well- coordinated contingency operation.