This is interesting – the MoD has established a new body intended to enhance the cultural awareness of UK forces operating in Afghanistan. From the media note:
The unit, which is preparing a pool of deployable cultural specialists, also provides cultural awareness training to the British military. [...] As well as running training packages on cultural awareness, the DCSU will also have the role of defining what the training requirements are.
In addition to a basic one week course, designed for those heading off to theatre, a second, higher level of training is on offer too. This course will provide ‘specialist training at a masters level, covering anthropology, psychology, sociology and influencing skills, lasting around ten weeks’.
Who’s teaching all this stuff? Well, ‘the DCSU has a pool of cultural advisors. There are currently 25 in the pool and it is intended that there will be 40 in total. Each one is a linguist, speaking either Pashto or Dari.’
From March, eight of these cultural advisors will be deployed to Afghanistan at any one time. Most are senior military officers. In addition, there is a civilian cultural specialist, Sippi Azarbaijani-Moghaddam, who Lt Col Windmill says is considered one of the top five experts on Afghan culture in the world.
Now, I’m going to bite back some scepticism about a 10 week course ‘at a masters level’ and be optimistic – some training (especially, from my point of view, in psychology and influence) has to be better than none. So good luck to all concerned.
I’m curious why this is at RAF Henlow too – not the Defence Academy, where there’s plenty of scope for involvement and interaction with masters students, many of whom have considerable experience in Afghanistan.
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Cool, so the MoD is only about five years behind the U.S. on building up a cultural advising capability. They’ll be functional in no time.
Now now Joshua, be nice – surely you know that we’re Greece to your Rome? We get this stuff intuitively – a cup of tea with the nearest bearded ‘tribal’ elder will sort most things out.
I was interested in Lt Col Windmill’s unequivocal appraisal of Sippi Azarbaijani-Moghaddam – one of the top five in the world. Do you guys keep a league table?
Kenneth, I’m not sure what kind of league table they keep (and I’m not sure you can make a “top five” in the field), but Sippi is amongst the best. She’s a great choice to start things up.
And seriously? I’m only snarking on the timing. It’s about time the UK got back to its roots, so to speak, on this one.
Karma Qawma, as Massive Attack might put it – ahead of the curve on that, as so much else…
Joshua – yes, only five years behind – and copying the U.S. on the tribal front as well (something which I suspect will particularly irk you).
“Lt Col Windmill explained how the cultural advisors already in theatre are having tangible benefits. One who has been deployed for almost 18 months has been mapping the tribal dispositions and their allegiances and as a consequence is helping shape battle plans.”
That’s perfect – because we all know that the Taliban (and Afghans writ large) identify themselves along tribal lines…
Yeah, but I suspect that the DCSU will come around, as other programs like the Human Terrain System did, as they get empirical data that tribe doesn’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things. Like I said above about the timing, it’s just too bad they waited until 2009 to even try to learn this stuff (I had consulted around this time last year with some MoD types who were trying to copy the concept). Especially in Helmand, there is a steep learning curve.
Hey Josh,
congrats on your latest piece, for all KOW readers its here:
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100211/REVIEW/702119988/1008
I agree with Ken that time spent on these things is better than none. But I sure hope the likes of Josh’s work is included in the course!
Patrick,
Many thanks!
I think it’s great to see more coordination between academics and ‘trigger-pullers’. Both of these groups have a tendency to become too focused on their own little worlds and miss the larger one. However, I think it’s best to keep the academics’ role confined to pre-deployment training and high-echelon consulting. Walking the ground with troops in Afghanistan is just not particularly productive and potentially wasteful, as the US Human Terrain Teams have demonstrated.
And of course 10 weeks is ‘masters level’, especially at a UK school. In fact, I think your average student takes three or four at this level in one 10 week term.
Considering all the other things that personnel on their way to Afghanistan have to train on and learn, 10 weeks is a serious commitment to one specific subject.
I would never advocate Sippi as cultural advisor to the MOD, I know this lady on a personal basis, she is vehemently opposed to the traditional Pashtun way of life, she is a feminist who has been involved in rural development in Afghanistan and is highly critical of any male dominated society esp Pashtun, well they are pretty patriarchal and namus (segregation/protection of womenfolk) is a part of their code of honour (pashtunwali). The Pashtuns already accuse the West of violating their land and honour, now we hire an Iranian lass to teach us about their culture. I can see we’re really going to make progress, Good Luck MOD!
Dear J>M, we’re having a bit of a debate here as to whether to delete your comment or not. It seems to us that anonymous critique of a named individual sort of breaks our ‘be polite’ rule. It’s a tough call. I suspect, however, that she would not mind being called a feminist (I don’t know her, but why would she?) so let it stand. In future though would you (and everyone else) mind not making such comments anonymously? It just feels a little unseemly and underhand and doesn’t sit well. Thank you.
Adam S,
do you think there’s any ‘middle ground’ there – maybe as well as high echelon consulting, some more localised advice on a certain village/area, to a unit commander for example?
reason for asking: one suggestion by the excellent recent HTT report is that ‘human terrain’ needs to be extremely localised in its interpretation, and that big labels like ‘tribe’ are deeply unhelpful and preconceived.
Patrick,
I think that could be helpful when its needed on the ground and when there is someone with a genuine knowledge of local communities. I have my doubts that there are enough academics with that kind of knowledge to help out in all the villages in Afghanistan.
In general I think that pre-deployment training and someone available to consult in the event of a problem while deployed is enough. At that point, the commander on the ground should be able to get the best idea of what’s happening in a village through personal interaction. If they can’t, no number of ‘local’ specialists on the ground will do much good.
First and foremost, I am happy to have learned that the MoD is making strides in what has, over the past 4 or so years, been dubbed “cultural sensitivity training” — sometimes I think we need CST just to operate in our daily non-military lives.
My hope is that lessons will be taken from the misconceptions of US CST graduates that they now know precisely how to operate in said locations and interact with said populations. Pre-deployment training in comprehension and interaction skills is vital in our current military situations, but cannot be compared to the benefits of what you learn once on the ground. Consensus is that once there, soldiers tend to forget their training and rely on their commanders to take the lead on interaction with villagers. While important that the commander on the ground is utmost informed of situations, current and forming, much can be gained by having an entire troop engaged with the locals. There’s no reason that more than one soldier can’t become a local “specialist” in any given setting.
I would encourage the MoD to study closely the strengths and weaknesses of the US system and do a better job. Adam, I agree that there is likely a (very) limited number of academics available to provide guidance on Afghani issues/people – especially tribal. Hence, reasons for continual learning on the ground. Become an academic there. Learn. Become your own specialist, per se.
One snarky aside if I may: could it be the MoD has been so slow on this one after they got burned with that chap who was Richards interpreter who turned out to be an Iranian spy….
What I don’t quite understand is why we have here in the UK a plethora of ‘advisory’ groups springing up with so little co-ordination. I know army COs who want advice from academics and experts, but they are baffled by the array of organisations that are not working together. Why, indeed, does a team like this spring up outside of the sort of organisation, like the Defence Academy, that would be best suited to deliver it? Is this a capacity-issue, or, as I suspect, someone’s ‘pet project’?
Well, at least we are becoming cultural more like the Pashtuns: segementary and tribal, of separate patrilinear descent to the point of pathology, always fighting the nearest cousins, …
:) Very good Rob. Sad but true…. But don’t mention the T(ribe)- word though, you’ll only get all the anthropologists vexed…
I am fascinated by this thread – and much enjoyed Patrick Porter’s recent book on similar subject – but am I right in thinking that we continue to see ‘others’ as a cultural aberration (even a deficiency?) compared with ‘us’? Is the difference not a relative (even a reflexive), rather than an objective, one? Perhaps ‘self-awareness’ training should precede any attempt to understand ‘them’ – or else they remain distant, and we remain unconscious? Final point, is it possible that we might learn something about ourselves from others (Todorov et al)? Who captures this and promulgates it, I wonder?
I especially like how the press note was at pains to point out that the spelling of Mechanized was correct and “NOT AN AMERICANISATION”!
I think it is really good idea to have MDCU. afghan people are tough and the british MOD should know how to recepect there calture to when the heart and mind .