Cross-Cultural Competence and Small Groups: Why SOF Are the Way SOF Are

摘要

This discussion will address the warrior-diplomat construct, asking if it provides an accurate description of SOF as a force skilled in more than one way to achieve strategic ends. It also will check the notion that this competency is part of what distinguishes SOF, as a force, from General Purpose Forces (GPF). SOF's special warfighting skills are celebrated and have led to significant successes in yesterday's and today's conflicts. SOF's diplomatic or nonkinetic skills are more problematic, however. Doctrinal and other source materials do not directly address the definitional question -- what does it mean to be a diplomat and how would we know if we saw one. They do suggest, however, that diplomatic skills are operationalized through the exercise of competencies in cross-cultural interaction and communication. This discussion will explore the ways in which SOF addresses these competencies by looking at how the various service components select and assess candidates. Given the recent (and still contested) interest in cultural competence among the GPF, this monograph addresses the ways in which SOF exercise this competency differently than the GPF.