FOCUS
Diplomats’ effectiveness
application of the principles suggested in this article.
The diplomat with a sound strategy, thoroughly versed on the people and politics of a province, and in
constant contact with the local population, can make significant contributions to a combined counterinsurgency campaign through linguistic,
professional and area-specific expertise acquired over many years.
These hard-won skills include the
ability to operate effectively in a difficult, foreign environment; powers of persuasion and negotiation; the capacity to decipher the various shadings of
meanings conveyed by interlocutors; and a facility for advancing governmental policies and programs.
Systematic development of such a seasoned cadre
of diplomat-counterinsurgents will take time and, more
importantly, require key policy decisions that fall outside
the scope of this article. The guidelines set forth here are meant as instruments in a toolbox from which
the diplomat may choose. They are
approaches to enhance a diplomat’s
effectiveness, approaches that can
be embraced now and with little
cost.
If the United States is to achieve
lasting, durable victories in Afghanistan, Iraq and future conflict zones,
it is essential that civilians become
as conversant with the fundamen-
tals of counterinsurgency warfare as our military counterparts already are. Failure to undertake this admittedly
difficult task will reduce the diplomat’s effectiveness as a
foreign affairs professional and diminish the likelihood that
the United States government will achieve its long-term
national security objectives. As diplomats, we can afford
neither outcome. ■
in carrying out counter-
insurgency work is a direct
function of how well they
know their area of
responsibility.
