Combined joint task force-horn of Africa: defense, diplomacy and development

CHIPS, April-June, 2008

Rear Adm. Greene: Having political advisers and development advisers on a major staff is a common thing. All our combatant commanders have political advisers, and the insight provided by that perspective is certainly helpful. All of us benefit from that expertise.

In respect to your question, we complement each other's efforts. We are there to support the initiatives of the Department of State and the Office of the Secretary of Defense in terms of capacity building for increasing security and improving stability. We are there at the request of the Africans to support the needs they have in terms of building their capabilities across the spectrum of cooperation, engagement and military-to-military training affairs.

There is a natural synergy between what we are doing on the defense side, what the development side is doing and what diplomacy is all about. With all of us working closely together, we are able to optimize the resources we have and to provide the best kind of assistance and response to help the Africans solve their challenges.

Q: Admiral, there is a school of thought that says that the military's main job is to engage in kinetic operations and that they are not trained, staffed and equipped for this kind of softer approach. Some people feel that they should not be doing that. Can you comment on how you feel about being engaged in this type of activity and whether you think the military can be effective?

Rear Adm. Greene: I am very proud to be involved in conflict-prevention efforts. If what we are doing, with respect to engaging with our partners on the development side and the diplomacy side, results in conflict prevention, then the investment of our time and efforts will have paid huge dividends.

Make no mistake, for us it is about the conflict prevention piece. We are ensuring that our homeland is protected the best way possible. If we can enhance that through forging relationships, building partnerships, creating capacity so that our African friends are contributors to their secure environment so they can stimulate their own economic and social development, so they can make a better life for their own people, then we will all feel we have done a great thing.

Brig. Gen. Holman: I feel fortunate to be a part of this mission. I spent a year in Iraq doing the kinetic part. I have about nine months of experience with the non-kinetic. In the Army, the training and personnel development objective is full spectrum operations. Most officers get a lot of experience on the kinetic side but not on the non-kinetic side. This has balanced my experience and I feel more capable of dealing with any national security situation I might be thrown into in the future because I have a broader perspective on how to deal with those situations.

The wave of the future is probably to develop troops that have a full career that have a balance between the kinetic and the non-kinetic. We have civil affairs teams, we have well-drillers, and we have combat service support personnel whose skill set matches the non-kinetic mission. They have those dual-use skills that can be used in a kinetic or non-kinetic environment.