THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2025 15 about the accoutrements on uniforms. All military members have war stories. ■ Ask questions about your counterpart’s work. It’s not insider threat action to ask, and most military will answer. If they use acronyms, ask them to explain those also. Military members: Stop using acronyms in every sentence. ■ Learn by reading. Most members of the military have at least heard of the book Inside a U.S. Embassy, but it does not make up for lack of experiential knowledge. I recommend Career Diplomacy: Life and Work in the US Foreign Service to military officers so that they have a better picture of their counterparts’ career path and, of course, The Foreign Service Journal. Conversely, I recommend New Army Officer’s Survival Guide and Army Officer’s Guide for new diplomats. Reading will help. You can also ask the senior defense official about service magazines from their combatant commands and the monthly deliveries of Army History and similar publications. ■ My final recommendation is for all parties to understand their role. The military has a saying, “One team, one fight,” and it holds valid for the interagency effort as well. Military personnel assigned to interagency teams quickly learn that the ambassador calls the shots for the embassy. They have a military commander and orders, but military personnel must conform to standards of behavior and performance expectations as diplomatic representatives of their country while in a foreign posting. If a military member has an issue with a Foreign Service counterpart, they should resolve it at the lowest possible level. If the issue originates from a culture clash, the individuals need to work together to deconflict this. Collaboration Checklist ■ Check your ego. FSOs, if you do not understand, ask. Military, do the same. ■ Do your homework. Is there a culture conflict, or is the issue a result of lack of need to know? Not all information can or should be shared. ■ Is there a Marine Corps Ball fund? Support it, and wear the polo shirt or T-shirt. Military members at post will appreciate the gesture of solidarity. ■ Military, when you attend invitational events or parties, offer to help. Get involved. ■ All sides need to know where they are in seniority, not just rank. Ask any sergeant major if a lieutenant knows more than they do because of rank. ■ Do not create friction regarding pay and benefits. Military members and Foreign Service members receive different benefits. Military and interagency personnel receive foreign language and danger pay, but Department of State FSOs are also eligible for step increases and can voluntarily transfer leave to another Department of State employee. ■ Military spouses who may work in embassies do not have their servicemembers’ rank. Please be nice to them; they are between worlds and can be useful translators. ■ If you are interested in military doctrine, news, or current affairs that may involve the U.S. military, please ask. Military personnel are trained to understand that we do not make policy, we follow it. Our filter may help explain illogical military actions. ■ Institute a brown bag series to go over topics of interest. Both sides need to know why their counterparts do certain things. For example, why doesn’t the ambassador have a say in the military officers’ performance ratings? ■ A humorous way to deconflict interagency jargon and acronyms is to provide newcomers with a cheat sheet. In my own experience, the sheet can be one of the best ways to open dialogue. Title it: “Department of State to Department of Defense: A Guide to Gibberish.” ■ Respect goes a long way. Foreign Service officers are a select group of America’s finest. So are military personnel. The military servicemembers in an embassy seldom have less than five years of service, eight to 10 years for junior officers, twice that for more senior. Military personnel need to understand that first-tour FSOs have a lot of weight on their shoulders. Go easy and work to reach compromise. e The interagency process can be frustrating, especially with the differences between departments in how they conduct business. The military tends to limit the number of meetings by using a process of task delegation called mission command. The chain of command executes orders. Rarely is there a formal meeting process aside from the generation of courses of action and plans from those conclusions. The Department of State, in my experience, uses more meetings and teams to tackle challenges. Neither system is wrong; both work, and both require participants to understand the process. A lesson that first-tour FSOs and military personnel can take away from the interagency process is that communication is key and that open channels are essential. I recommend that whenever possible, everyone take advantage of Friday afternoons to take off the “agency armor” and enjoy an embassy social of any stripe. n
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