Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [151]
A lot is crammed into these three days of instruction; it exhausts the candidates and the writer—logistics, security, intelligence, caching equipment, linkup procedures, guerrilla bases, guerrilla training areas, mission support sites, emergency procedures, communications, demobilizations…the list goes on. There were two blocks of instruction I find particularly compelling. One is on negotiations and the other on cross-cultural communication. The material and the delivery are first rate. In the crowded, stuffy classroom, I can feel the weary candidates perk up during these presentations.
The class on negotiation is presented by a retired Special Forces sergeant major who had trained at the Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation, the U.S. Army Peacekeeping Institute, and the State Department’s National Foreign Affairs Training Center. “Understand that there’s always a basis for negotiation,” he tells Phase IV Class 2-05, “and each side has a range of options. You have the tactical-force option: small-arms fire, close air support, and smart bombs—that sort of thing. And there’s the nontactical option, or trying to influence someone else to see things your way. We negotiate all the time—when we buy a new car, when we want to watch the ball game and our wives want to watch a movie. The regular Army usually negotiates with tanks, armored personnel carriers, and attack helicopters. In Special Forces, we often have to be persuasive in our work—it’s the nature of working by, with, and through others. In Afghanistan, our first order of business was to get the tribes of the Northern Alliance to quit fighting each other and to fight the Taliban. It took a lot of negotiating to do this. The guys who accomplished that had to understand where those tribal leaders were coming from. I mean, really understand them—their reservations, their history, their customs, and their ambitions. In your negotiations during Robin Sage and deployed downrange with an operational ODA, you’ll have your frame of reference—what you want to accomplish, your best-outcome position, and your bottom-line position. But you better understand the issue from their perspective as well. You may need help or information from some nongovernmental organization, and the local person heading that NGO may be some West Coast, liberal-educated, no-leg-shaving, Birkenstock-wearing female uniform-hater. And you gotta deal with her. The terrain can change swiftly. You may be dealing with a tribal elder in the morning, with the embassy security officer at noon, and that scratchy lady at the NGO later in the afternoon. You need to use your maturity, professionalism, and common sense. If you’re a head butter and not a people person, you may have some problems. Negotiation and mediation are tools, just like small-unit tactics, weapons, and close air support.”
The program is followed by a scenario-based persuasion exercise. This four-hour presentation is a cooked-down version of a graduate-level semester on negotiations. Following the negotiations block of instruction, Class 2-05 plunges into cross-cultural communications. This block is presented by a very capable, veteran cadre sergeant.
“The more you know about another culture and can communicate with them, the better you can do your job. Understanding them, gaining their trust, avoiding their taboos, and presenting yourself in a favorable light from