Military institutional communication its geostrategic importance

Air & Space Power Journal, Fall, 2007 by Alexandre Sergio Da Rocha

Since the end of World War II, the US military has recognized the importance of military institutional communication and has used academic-professional journals as a prime medium for conducting it. Reading the editorial in the fourth-quarter 1999 issue of Airpower Journal, Brazilian edition (now Air and Space Power Journal em Portugues), one discovers that the Portuguese and Spanish editions of the Journal, originally called Air University Quarterly Review, began with a letter dated 1 december 1948 from Gen George c. Kenney, Air University commander, to Gen Hoyt S. Vandenberg, chief of staff of the US Air Force (USAF). General Kenney asked for permission to launch the aforementioned foreign-language publications. (1) By granting permission, the USAF followed the example set by the US Army, whose professional journal, Military Review, had appeared in Spanish and Portuguese since 1945. In fact, the USAF swiftly embraced the cause of foreign-language institutional communication because the Spanish and Portuguese editions of Air University Quarterly Review began only about one year after the USAF became an independent service in 1947. The journal's name later changed from Airpower Journal to Aerospace Power Journal and then, more recently, to Air and Space Power Journal (ASPJ ), but the effort has continued uninterrupted for more than 50 years, and its purpose has never changed.

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Many senior military leaders from the United States and Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries have expressed their appreciation for the contribution made by the

foreign-language editions of the Journal, as we can read in the 50th-anniversary commemorative issues of both those journals from 1999. however, their messages are not just congratulatory in nature. In fact, they provide an assessment of the publication's value to the USAF and the air forces of countries that comprise the target audience of these editions.

Referring to the journals, Gen Lloyd W. "Fig" newton, then commander of Air education and training command, commented, "through the years, their thought-provoking articles have helped provide the intellectual framework for our institutions and have promoted significant operational advancements" (emphasis added). (2) Maj Gen (Brigadeiro) Jose Americo dos Santos, then commander of the Brazilian Air Force University/Air War college, pointed out that the Portuguese edition was relevant and instrumental for "updating data regarding military equipment and employment doctrine." (3) he also declared that "Airpower Journal has ... becom[e] the reference publication of choice in the country's professional military education environment." (4) Gen Michael E. Ryan, then the USAF chief of staff, noted that

   both Latin American editions have become
   widely read and respected by airmen throughout
   the more than 25 Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking
   countries of the Western hemisphere,
   europe, and Africa. The journals disseminate core
   USAF doctrine, strategy, policy, operational art and
   current issues. Both editions play a very important
   role in strengthening our relationship with their air
   force audiences. They also serve to educate, develop
   and nurture these officers as their careers progress.
   By shaping the dialogue among airmen, the
   journals bring them closer together across the
   geographical and cultural lines separating them. (5)
   (emphasis added)

So one can see that the medium for military institutional communication with Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries initiated by the USAF immediately after its own inception has had a specific goal of "disseminat[ing] core USAF doctrine, strategy, policy, operational art and current issues" (General Ryan's words) in order to promote "significant operational advancements" (General newton's words).

This article makes three points. First, dissemination of core USAF doctrine, strategy, policy, operational art, and current issues in order to promote significant operational advancements is very important--if not essential--to supporting US military activities worldwide in defense of US national-security interests. This claim was true in the aftermath of World War ii and is even more so today in an era when combined military operations and coalition warfare are clear US foreign-policy imperatives. Second, academic-professional journals in languages other than english are particularly appropriate for reaching the goals of USAF leaders, mentioned above. Third, due to geostrategic considerations, the existence of specialized vehicles for military institutional communication in Portuguese is even more imperative today than it was 59 years ago, when General Kenney asked for approval to publish what is now the Portuguese edition of ASPJ.

The Need to Share Knowledge

In her article "Operation iraqi Freedom: coalition Operations," Squadron Leader Sophy Gardner, Royal Air Force, writes that

   we, the US and UK militaries, left the end of
   phase three of Operation iraqi Freedom having
   worked successfully as a coalition and having
   faced practical challenges along the way. We can
   see that these were largely overcome through a
   combination of fortuitous timing (an extended
   planning period), strong personal relationships
   (particularly at the senior levels), mutual dependence
   and burden sharing ... and a motivation
   to find common ground and to engineer solutions
   to any problems that threatened the coalition's
   integrity. Most importantly, trust was established
   at all levels. For the future, whether we
   consider either mindset, doctrine, and culture,
   or equipment, concept of operations, and interoperability--it
   is mutual cooperation and contact
   which will provide us with the best chance of
   staying in step. (6) (emphasis added)