The Foreign Service Journal, June 2017

22 JUNE 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL There has been a growing convergence of interest between diplomacy and special operations since the 9/11 terror attacks. Special Operations and Diplomacy: A Unique Nexus Steve Kashkett is a Senior Foreign Service officer who served as the senior POLAD to U.S. Special Opera- tions Command from 2012 to 2013. He has also served as deputy chief of mission in Prague; principal officer in Tijuana and Halifax; political officer in Beirut, Paris, Haiti and Jerusalem; and in numerous assignments in Washington, D.C. He is a former AFSA State vice president. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or the U.S. government. F or most of us in the Foreign Service, one of the most striking developments in the 16 years since the 9/11 terror attacks has been a dramatic increase in synergy between the Department of State and the U.S. military. Coordination of our military and diplomatic activities overseas has become a guiding principle. The shared role of the military and State Department civilians in managing the prolonged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the broadening of U.S. military operations across a variety of foreign areas, and the growing ascendancy of the military in foreign policy decision-making have all contrib- uted to the realization that State and Defense must work together more effectively. Nowhere is this more evident than in the world of special operations. Embedded State foreign policy advisers (POLADs) are now PERSPECTIVES assigned throughout the special operations community within the U.S. military. This diplomatic presence extends not just to the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) based at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida, which oversees all special operations forces (SOF) worldwide, but also to the headquarters of each of the functional component special operations commands for the four branches of the military and to the theater special opera- tions commands in each region of the world. At the same time, SOCOM has assigned its own dedicated SOF liaison officers to the State Department and more than two dozen U.S. embassies. The convergence of interest between diplomacy and special operations can best be explained by understanding the unique— and often publicly misconstrued—activities that SOF elements undertake abroad. U.S. Special Operations: Myth and Reality Hollywood movies paint a picture of special operations as nothing but direct action: killing terrorists in nighttime raids, rescuing hostages, conducting drone strikes, blowing up facili- ties behind enemy lines and undertaking similar commando operations. To be sure, our SOF operators do conduct these kinds of kinetic, “tip-of the-spear” direct actions, which remain at the heart of the SOF mission and have taken the spotlight since 9/11. But there is much more to U.S. special operations. Particularly over the past two decades, the U.S. special opera- tions community has expanded its focus on cultivating relation- ships by using training and “soft” power initiatives to build partner- ships between SOF forces and key local constituencies in other BY STEVEN KASHKETT ON DIPLOMACY AND DEFENSE