The Foreign Service Journal, October 2015

20 OCTOBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL and established by the Unified Command Plan issued by the Secretary of Defense. They fall into two categories—geographic and functional. The six geographic COCOMs are: U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Southern Command, U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. Central Command and U.S. European Command. The three functional combatant commands are: U.S. Transportation Command, U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. These commands are responsible for operational control of military personnel and units in combat as well as during peacetime activities, such as theater security cooperation programs. The U.S. Special Operations Command is a hybrid organization, which has responsibility and authority for the “organize, train and equip” function, as well as command authority for operationally engaged troops. 2 SIZE MATTERS The U.S. military is big, if not enor- mous. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps cur- rently have a combined total strength of about 1.3 million uniformed personnel, plus well over 600,000 civilian employees. Including National Guard and Reserve forces adds about another 825,000 uniformed personnel to the total. The State Department’s roster of approximately 14,000 career Foreign Service members and nearly 11,000 Civil Service members pales in comparison. This immense disparity in size has several consequences for the Foreign Service. Given the nature of its missions, the military is accustomed to and proficient at doing things on a grand scale, but this can only be accomplished with detailed advanced plan- ning. This planning imperative at times will appear to diplomats to be overdone, especially since “winging it” is an honored Foreign Service tradition. Another consequence of size is the need for extensive coordination within and among military organizations. This is accomplished at the COCOMs, for example, with an extensive framework of coordinating boards, bureaus, cells and working groups. Supporting such extensive coordination may easily over- whelm embassy staffing, and a more selective apportionment of embassy resources may not satisfy the military’s coordination appetite. Size alone gives the military a voice in nearly every foreign policy issue. It is organized on a global basis with geographic com- batant commanders focused on their individual area of respon- sibility (AOR). The Navy and the Air Force provide a global and regional conventional reach and are the custodians of the nation’s nuclear forces. The military’s Global Response Force, drawn primarily from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, stands ready to respond to immediate crisis situations. And the nation’s military cyber defensive and offensive capabilities are handled by the U.S. Cyber Command under the U.S. Strategic Command. The challenge for the Foreign Service is to provide the leader- ship to incorporate this dynamic capability into a coherent, coordinated foreign policy. To use military terminology, State’s diplomatic efforts need to be “supported” by the military, which is preconditioned by its culture and training to understand this type of supported/supporting relationship. The FS needs to expand this essential cooperation, hopefully drawing on the 25 percent of its members who have prior military experience to help grow and nurture the relationship. 3 DOCTRINE COUNTS To anyone who has never served in the military, especially the Army, the concept and role of doctrine will be entirely alien. For an Army soldier, however, doctrine is a combination of the Bible and the Boy Scout Handbook. It codifies current Army concepts, provides a set of fundamental principles, establishes policies and proce- dures, details tactics and techniques, attempts to inspire, and mandates a common lexicon of warfighting terms and concepts. To understand the military and its methods and jargon, FS per- sonnel will need at least a passing acquaintance with doctrine. But be prepared for an extensive amount of reading. Army doc- The military is accustomed to and proficient at doing things on a grand scale, but this can only be accomplished with detailed advanced planning. U.S. Military Active-Duty Strength (May 31, 2015) Army 490,326 Navy 326,253 Marine Corps 183,510 Air Force 310,917 Coast Guard 40,075 Total 1,351,236 Source: Defense Manpower Data Center