Military Takes Aim at Educating Civilians
by Naseem Khuri, Culture/Photo Editor on April 30, 2008 in News
On a sunny April day in West Point, New York, eight students sat down for lunch in the dining hall of the United States Military Academy. Seven of them were cadets, wearing Advanced Combat Uniforms and boots-the relaxed dress code for Fridays. But the eighth stood out like a sore thumb: a Kennedy School student dressed in khakis and asking lots of questions.
The scene was orchestrated by the Armed Forces Club (AFC), an HKS student organization that organized a day-trip to the Academy for twenty students, allowing them to catch a glimpse of military culture that is otherwise invisible to civilian eyes.
The trip was part of a more comprehensive effort to strengthen civilian and military relations at the Kennedy School, which is more considerably active this year than in the past.
It started last November when Jim Lee, a National Security Fellow, initiated a study group that meets weekly and features fellows presenting defense-related topics.
“Students and faculty get to learn who the fellows are,” Lee said. “When they leave, the students now have established contacts with senior Department of Defense officials.”
Kent Park (MPP2), who served with the Army as a company commander in Iraq and now heads the AFC, believes there is a greater need beyond networking that applies directly to the changing role of the military.
“We are being told to do governance, economic development and humanitarian assistance that is not part of our core competency,” Park said. “We realize our shortcomings. We can’t do this on our own.”
Park has taken the responsibility of promoting dialogue upon himself. In addition to the West Point trip, the Armed Forces Club conducted a seminar series entitled “Military 101 and 102″ and created a new position of “Civ-Mil Liason” within the AFC, representing a fixed means of communicating with the civilian community.
Even if increasing civilian-military relations on campus is considered helpful in theory, in practice it poses significant challenges. Despite efforts aimed at educating both sides, preconceived opinions and hardened perspectives can sometimes make learning difficult.
One student on the West Point trip, Olivia Armenta (MPP2), said her mostly Latino community lacks trust in the military because of its Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly the School of the Americas), which has trained soldiers and officers operating in Central and South America.
“If known human rights violators from military institutions in Latin America are trained in [U.S. military] facilities, it’s difficult to ask human rights organizations to understand military culture,” Armenta said.
J.C. Mikits, (MPP, 2007) currently serving as teacher at West Point, acknowledged the barrier.
“The military can do a better job of sitting down with people who are anti-military and finding out why,” Mikits said. “It should be trying to convey that maybe there’s a perception problem there.”
Such inherent differences may represent challenges that a handful of campus events cannot overcome, raising the question of what more should be done.
Vincent Smith (MPA/MC), who worked with the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping in Somalia and Haiti and often felt civilian-military tensions, suggests that stronger academic requirements should be put in place to address the issue.
“[The Administration] should look at every course and make sure that people from one side are forced to look at the other side,” he said. “People with my background should have to take international security classes.”
Cadets lining up outside the dining room at West Point. Credit: Naseem Khuri
While courses taught by Professors Sarah Sewall, John White and Richard Clarke raise issues of civilian-military cooperation, Park believes one course specifically devoted to the topic is necessary. “It amazes me that there is not a formal class on the civilian-military relationship,” he said.
As the military does more outreach to the humanitarian community at HKS, some students have questioned if the learning is going in both directions.
Emilian Papadopolous (MPP2), who has focused on international security during his time at HKS, recognizes the need for such a two-way exchange.
“As a civilian, it’s clear the military has done a great job of advancing outreach,” Papadopoulous said. “We need to step up our efforts even more. It has to be a truly joint venture.”
Evan Maher (MPP1), the AFC Civ-Mil Liason who worked with the Department of Justice in Iraq before coming to the Kennedy School, takes a different perspective.
“The military lives civilian lives most of the time,” Maher said. “So they have a much better understanding of us than we have of them.”
It is unclear whether the marked increase in such events, largely attributed to individuals like Kent Park and Jim Lee, will continue next year.
“I would love to think that someone else will step up,” said Park, who will graduate this spring. “It is a lot of work, and I readily admit it is personality driven.”
Lee’s study group will continue next year with the support of the Institute of Politics (IOP) and the Belfer Center.
Maher, who plans on working with Park to adopt a model started at Tufts University, aims to cultivate relationships with the IOP and the Carr Center for Human Rights to institutionalize the Armed Forces Club’s civilian-military efforts.
“We want to plant seeds now for those will be leaders down the road,” Maher said. “It’s a long term project.”
Written by Naseem Khuri, Culture/Photo Editor · Filed Under News
Naseem Khuri (MPP2) is Culture and Photo Editor of the Citizen. Prior to his time at the Kennedy School, Khuri worked as an Associate at CMPartners, a consulting firm specializing in negotiation and conflict management training and coaching. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 2001 with degrees in biochemistry and music, and actually still plays music (myspace.com/kingsleyflood). He enjoys late night Guitar Hero, Diet Coke with Lime, long walks on the beach and shamelessly advertising his myspace music page.
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