MODERNIZATION AND ENTERPRISE COLLABORATION
“With any organization, it’s really the people that are the key of what we do."
government-directed staffing reductions in September 2017, followed by the diplo- matic expulsions in April of 2018. Te DOD presence in Moscow had been reduced by almost 80 to 85 percent over that period of time,” he recalled. “Instead of the full office that I was accustomed to in my first tour, I arrived back to an office that had three people that had to manage that very difficult relationship for a period of about eight months with limited support,” he said.
But even in that very tense environment, Harmon said he knew his mission was to focus on dialogue and engagement. As any therapist would confirm, sometimes the most difficult relationships require the most intentional conversations. “Even at the height of the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union always had to find a way to have lines of communication with each other. We had to find a way to ensure that we didn’t inadvertently create a situation where we introduced risk of miscalculation and escalation and increase the likelihood of a crisis or a conflict because of lack of dialogue and lack of understanding,” he said. “In that very difficult environment, at my level, we valued the ability to talk, military-to-military, for the purposes of transparency and risk reduction, about our activities and what we were doing, with the goal of also trying to understand Russia’s strategic intentions. Of course, bilateral dialogues require equally committed and transparent interlocutors.”
Tus, the earlier hypothetical Black Sea scenario. As the U.S. senior defense official in Russia, that late-night phone call would have been Harmon’s to make.
THE ART OF ALLIES Tankfully, the U.S. has more congenial relationships with the bulk of its other international partners. Harmon cited his time in Estonia as one example, and said there are important lessons to be learned in those experiences, as well. “In a place like Estonia, what you learn is that we have a lot of great allies and partners out there. Te ability to get to work with them side by side, when it comes to training and exercises, when it comes to capabil- ities acquisition, working with a partner and really understanding them, under- standing their military and how we can work together bilaterally and multilater- ally, it was a great case study in how to do things well,” he recalled. “Trough our close relationship with the Estonians and by extension, our close relationship with other Baltic nations, you really learn about engagement, you really learn about the importance of allies and partners. You also really understand the threat from a partner perspective, too, and how [our work] with allies and partners in military competition becomes absolutely critical to face that threat.”
Managing international collaboration and engagement on such a large scale requires certain skills and experiences, Harmon said. “It starts with some of the key skillsets that all FAOs need to have, which is really the critical thinking, the analysis, the clear and effective commu- nication. Being able to provide clear, cogent recommendations, well informed by your nuanced understanding of a host nation, the broader region and the threat, to senior leaders is important.” Tose offi- cers, perhaps better than anyone else in
FLYING HIGH
Harmon with Army astronaut Col. Andrew Morgan at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, prior to Morgan’s launch to the International Space Station in July 2019. (Photo courtesy of Brig. Gen. Garrick Harmon)
the security assistance enterprise, under- stand their host nations and the threats they face, so it’s important to harness that expertise “so that we can help deliver what a nation requires to support its national defense as well as regional or global oper- ations” through security assistance or foreign military sales, he said.
“It starts from that understanding that can only come through routine engagement. It starts with that clear, concise commu- nication, and the understanding of shared interests and opportunities.”
LEADERSHIP PRIORITIES Harmon is, by virtue of his international experience, a natural advocate for the work of USASAC, and he’s a champion for his
https://asc.ar my.mil
41
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176
