Evaluating Military Cross-Cultural Training Programs

Increased emphasis on stability operations, counterinsurgency, and security cooperation during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq resulted in programs to train and educate U.S. military personnel in foreign cultures and intercultural competence. Now, with the shift to great power competition, the Services have reduced or eliminated cultural training and education requirements. Documenting the approaches and lessons from these programs is important to maintain an institutional record for the future, if and when the United States sees the need to better understand the foreign cultures with which and in which its military operates. The present study applied a framework for qualitatively evaluating military cross-cultural training programs based on training science.

Algeria could start limited foreign deployments

Significance This reverses the previous policy that prohibited troops from undertaking foreign deployments and is important in light of deteriorating security in neighbouring Libya, Mali and Chad. Algeria’s military is well-equipped and well-trained. European powers and the United States have urged Algeria for years to take a more active role in regional stability operations. Impacts Deploying troops abroad would provoke strong popular opposition domestically, further emboldening the Hirak demonstration movement. Algerian troops in Mali and Chad would bolster Algiers’ diplomatic standing in Paris, Washington and Brussels. Algiers will immediately redeploy troops if they are injured or killed on foreign soil. Withdrawal of troops from neighbouring states would erode any diplomatic capital gained by Algeria.