The Foreign Service Journal, October 2015

36 OCTOBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Never pass up a chance to sit in on a meeting where military personnel are at the table helping formulate recommendations on how to resolve a problem. Afghanistan, and the decisions that were made on how to fight those wars. Going further back, there are countless books and articles about the VietnamWar, which resonate for me when I reflect on the wasted years of training and equipping a military that in 1975 capitulated, in many places without a fight. These sources can help us figure out what went wrong and how we missed it. Perhaps we did not pay enough attention to culture, history, corruption? Understanding these issues leads to the question of how and when we should even use our forces, and therein lies the nexus of diplomacy in the military engage- ment process. The second thing to do, especially if you’re a junior person at an embassy, is to get to know your military colleagues. If you have had little or no contact with anyone serving in uniform, go to your defense attaché, introduce yourself and just say you’d like to learnmore about what his or her office does in the country where you’re serving. You’ll probably get a warmwelcome, a briefing and, along the way, the chance to get to know the office staff, their backgrounds and what they like or dislike about military service. You will probably discover that your military colleagues are well- traveled, well-educated, and have useful information and contacts to share. Finally, never pass up a chance to sit in on a meeting where military personnel are at the table helping formulate recommen- dations on how to resolve a problem. Observe and listen carefully! To serve effectively one day as a senior diplomat, it’s essential to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of our colleagues in uniform and the way they approach national security issues. Of course, these steps are just a start toward gaining a bet- ter understanding of our military, its history and role in policy formulation. But they are sure to increase your knowledge of our military, which will help your career as much today as it did mine. n