[Richard]

Originally Posted by Sigaba

I would suggest that the integration of politics with military operations is unavoidable in the era of modern warfare. Countries simply cannot consider the military effectiveness of a proposed course of action without balancing the political consequences of that path. This consideration is necessary because modern warfare requires significant contributions from the combatants' civilian populations. If these populations do not endorse a proposed course of action and political and military leaders insist, disaster may follow.

I would also argue that it is of equal importance to consider both the political and military consequencs of any allied host nation populations, along with those of the intended target nation(s), as well. The Army does recognize this with its use of specialty-trained, regionally oriented Officers as PolMil advisors to senior joint and combined staffs (CMF 48 Foreign Area Officer ) as well as its SOF aligned Civil Affairs (CMF 38) Command.

There are three broad functional categories for Army officers:

1. Maneuver, Fires & Effects (MF&E)
2. Operations Support
3. Force Sustainment

In support of Army operations, CMF 38 is considered in the MF&E functional area and CMF 48 is in the the OpsSpt functional category.

Civil Affairs Officers act as a liaison between the Army and civilian authorities and populations in an effort to facilitate relationships between U.S. military forces and the people of the nation(s) in which those forces are operating.

Foreign Area Officers fill positions which require the application of foreign area expertise, political-military awareness, foreign language proficiency, and professional military knowledge and experience with military activities having an economic, social, cultural, or political impact - attaches; security assistance officers; political-military operations, plans, and policy officers; political-military intelligence staff officers; and liaison officers to foreign military organizations - and require graduate-level degrees in area studies and completion of overseas regional training.

It's a highly interactive global culture out there; always has been, but greater today and looks to be even more so in the future with, as Sig stated, the integration of politics with military operations remaining an unavoidable facet of policies where such operations are deemed useful or necessary.

In light of such thinking, something to be considered might be why is the Army the only service which has such a formalized program (CMF 48) and the Navy and Air Force do not?

Richard