During my research activities this past weekend I came across a very interesting news piece on the official website of the U.S. Air Force entitled “Air Force Officials Developing Cross-Culturally Competent Officers”. The topic of the U.S. Air Force and ROTC working towards developing cross-culturally competent officers is not only of interest to me but one I have posted about to IHEC Blog in the past (see links below). I won’t summarize the article for you as you can access and read it right here. However, here is a copy and paste job of the first two paragraphs from the article:
“In an effort to produce more culturally competent officers, Air Force ROTC officials now encourage cadets to take foreign language coursework and participate in cultural and language immersion and study abroad programs, according to an Air Force culture and language official.
"This is one of many new programs aimed at developing cross-culturally competent Airmen who are better able to build coalitions and enable partner nations and appropriately respond to the human elements of conflict," said Lt. Col. Paul Valenzuela, the Air Force culture and language office chief.”
I imagine that other branches of the U.S. military are also wanting to develop cross-culturally competent officers but I just haven’t found any resources/articles yet on this topic. As I come across them I will be sure to post to IHEC Blog or IHEC Blog’s Facebook page. If you know of similar initiatives happening in the U.S. military (as well as other militaries [friend or foe]) please leave a brief comment with a link(s) on where to access further information. Were these types of initiatives part of the education/training of U.S. military officers prior to the arrival of Secretary Gates?
Related articles:
Related IHEC Blog posts:
Photo credit: Beverly & Pack
