The Foreign Service Journal, September 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2017 11 policy theories that have real- life, real-time implications. My participation in the 2017 Eager Lion exercise in Jordan convinced me that military exercises can teach us what the Department of Defense ought to learn about the State Department and foreign policy objectives. Trainings that include a Command Post Exercise, in which military leaders role-play their way through a military campaign in an imaginary country, can also teach State about the effects of military operations in a host country. For 10 days in May, in addition to my real job as foreign policy adviser (POLAD) to Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade in Bahrain, I moonlighted as the POLAD to Combined Joint Task Force–Blueland in an imagi- nary country fighting an insurgency sponsored by its neighbor, Redland. What I learned there could fill a course at the Foreign Service Institute. What should DOD learn? First, partner nations are not monolithic. They face internal threats. Sometimes they inadver- tently contribute to internal threats. Sec- ond, partners have real reasons for saying no, and continuing to push them can be counterproductive. Third, we can hurt our cause by failing to consider the effects of our actions on host-country nationals. Fourth, refugees and internally displaced people will not return to their homes unless they can return to some- thing safe and worthwhile. Fifth, some countries do not act in good faith when negotiating peace. And sixth, partnering with irregular forces will have indirect or secondary effects on the host country and the region. What can State learn about the effects of military operations in a host country? First, fighting may not take as much time and effort as supply and logistics. Second, DOD sees State and the interagency as a black box. I explained to military col- leagues that different bureaus in State, different overseas missions and other agencies do not always come with unified views, policy preferences and capabilities. I saw an opportunity for both State and DOD to develop more effective shared approaches to problems. For example, both could benefit from view- ing peace talks holistically. Rather than silently resenting the peace talks and restrictions imposed by headquarters, we could shape the talks by offering tan- gible objectives for negotiations. Serving at an embassy or on a desk in Washington, we cannot afford to fail or make mistakes, even if we learn from them. The stakes are too high. But we must improve our skills as foreign policy practitioners, just as our military col- leagues are constantly honing their skills. Sending FSOs to participate in com- plex exercises such as EL17 can provide valuable training, not only for military leaders, but also for FSOs. In today’s world, FSOs often find that their best opportunities for shaping policy and making a difference at home and abroad are through sharing experiences with our DOD colleagues. Seiji T. Shiratori FSO, POLAD to Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade Bahrain Social Media Training for the Future Amelia Shaw’s clarion call to recon- sider how the Foreign Service uses social media (May Speaking Out) was as lucid