The Foreign Service Journal, October 2008

16 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 8 S ecretary of State Condoleezza Rice has made support of crisis operations a hallmark of her “transformational diplomacy” initia- tive. Toward that end, President Bush’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget sub- mission seeks funding to fill 1,100 new Foreign Service positions within the State Department, including 150 slots earmarked for political-military or foreign policy adviser positions in military commands within and out- side combat areas. This move to greatly strengthen the political-military function — like parallel efforts to enhance on-the- ground support in post-conflict stabi- lization and reconstruction, to improve the civilian-military coordination in national security policy implementa- tion — is to be warmly encouraged. By the Political-Military Affairs Bur- eau’s count, as of January there were 26 foreign policy or political adviser positions allocated to the offices of the four service chiefs in the Pentagon, six U.S. regional combatant commands (USPACOM, USEUCOM, etc.), four functional combatant commands (USSOCOM, USSTRATCOM, etc.), 12 major component commands, sev- eral subordinate commands in combat zones, and NATO headquarters and its key subordinate commands. An- other 17 State officers are assigned to military education and training insti- tutions and action officer positions in the Pentagon. In addition to its intention to increase these numbers in Fiscal Year 2009, the Political-Military Affairs Bureau is renegotiating the State- Defense Exchange Agreement to pro- vide for the assignment of more uni- formed officers to the State Depart- ment, easing restrictions imposed by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Under the 2008 Iraq-Afghanistan supplemental appropriations bill Con- gress passed in July, a down payment will be made on the expansion of the political adviser function with the establishment of 10 new positions to be filled in next summer’s assignment cycle. One major new political advis- er position will be re-established at U.S. Coast Guard headquarters and one position will be reserved for a management analyst position in the POLAD office of the PM Bureau here in Washington. The remainder of the positions are likely to be spread among operational commands, in- cluding the Marine Corps expedi- tionary force headquarters and other forward-deployed U.S. forces. The demand for Foreign Service officers will not be sated with this modest expansion, however. Regional combatant commands, such as US- SOUTHCOM in Miami, seek to inte- grate over a dozen new officers into their functional staffs, mostly in devel- opment and humanitarian assistance functions. DOD’s new command for Africa, USAFRICOM, is also request- ing a substantial number of Foreign Service detailees as it commences full operations on Oct. 1. In addition, an effort is being made to staff specialized functions in region- al commands below the political advis- er level, especially in intelligence coor- dination. POLADs as Diplomat-Warriors Until the current emphasis on transformational diplomacy in the post-9/11 environment advocated by Secretary Rice, political advisers formed a subculture within the larger political-military function. Their work has long been considered arcane, ren- dering those assigned to such positions uncompetitive in the annual promo- tion sweepstakes. The tide may be turning, however, as the growing im- portance of civilian-military coopera- tion has boosted demand within the military for the skills Foreign Service personnel and other civilians bring to operations requiring the integration of all elements of national power. These include stability and recon- struction, peacekeeping/peace en- forcement, counterinsurgency and crisis-intervention missions. Writing in these pages in Septem- ber 1998, Ambassador Howard K. Walker, then vice president of the Here are some practical tips to help POLADs work effectively with military commanders. u Maximizing the Value of the Political Adviser Function B Y J OHN D. F INNEY AND A LPHONSE F. L A P ORTA FS K NOW -H OW