Cultural Awareness for the Deployer - Free Paper Sample

Introduction

The military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan necessitate military personnel to interact efficiently with the local population facilitating successful military missions. The United States military is involved in diverse assignments requiring different necessities, including disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, reconstruction and stability, peacekeeping, counterinsurgency, and conventional combat (Caligiuri et al., 2011). Considering the various requirements, military missions occur counter to diverse cultural groups, among different cultural associations, and collaborating with various cultural communities. Units in the Army operate among the populace, which is different culturally from themselves. More so, the Army contains diverse cultural individuals encountering long, culturally diverse associations and enemies. Therefore, military operations in the future require the ability to create relationships, collaborate, communicate, and develop trust with individuals of exceedingly various competencies in the military unit. Cross-cultural competence training guarantees a skill set fit for a soldier to engage effectively in warfighting or peacekeeping. In numerous cases, there is the possibility of culture clashes between the local civilian population and deployed military troops, which can exacerbate tensions and create negative consequences tactically, operationally, and strategically (Greene et al., 2010). The United States military forces misunderstood the Iraqi culture during their entry into the region, meaning the troops found it challenging to develop personal relationships necessary for information purposes and attracting their interests. Therefore, the paper identifies how culture relates to military deployers and the presence of sufficient cultural training before the military units leave for deployments.

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Background Information

The adoption of doctrine, policy, and strategy helps the units in the Army in the preparedness for operations in a socio-cultural setting. The Army Capstone Concept, the Army Learning Concept for 2015, and the Army Culture and Foreign Language strategy help impact the soldiers with the required information on developing practical working settings that are culturally unfamiliar (Caligiuri et al., 2011). The purpose of identifying the various concepts is to ensure the soldiers are well-equipped with knowledge of the cultures they will engage in during their missions. Additionally, the United States military in the contemporary world requires cross-cultural competency, cultural sensitivity, and cultural awareness during the soldier’s interaction with individuals from various backgrounds, cultures, and countries (Lavoie, 2018). The military fit the demands of the Army for efficiency in making decisions. The growing presence of military units in other countries after deployment requires culturally competent soldiers in military deployments (Luby, 2012).

The United States military prioritizes cultural training as an essential lesson from Iraq, Afghanistan and any other country considering the significance of comprehending universal values and cultures. The strategy of cultural training focuses on creating units better equipped to operate in particular areas by creating cultural and language proficiency systems in their designated territories (Cohan, 2013). The cross-culturally competent aspects make individuals be enablers of the success of missions and gain life-saving skills. It necessitates the soldiers to possess the capabilities of continuing to gain knowledge and become progressively culturally alert over time and survive in the first days of deployment (Caligiuri et al., 2011). Also, the skills and knowledge gained from cross-cultural training help military personnel to learn the aspects of the different cultural areas of deployment, enhancing care strategies that are based on the civilians (Luby, 2012).

Deployment-related expressions can be easily understood by the soldier having less prior experience with military personnel. Developing cross-cultural competence offers soldiers the concepts and tools that enable cultural learning to discover culture on their own and cultural agility entailing the incorporation of effectively understood culture in the missions (Caligiuri et al., 2011). Social coordination and learning complement are required for the safety of the soldier and the success of the task.

Ethical Issues in Prior Research of Kurds

There are several beliefs that represents the aspects of cultural forms, ideas, and signs developed by individuals and interactions between them existing independently of the person and influence exerted during the interactions. The subjective culture of the Iraqi forces is how Kurds embrace, utilize, and feel lifestyle by interacting and expressing culture. It affected how individuals see and experience their culture. There are issues of cultural appropriation brought by culture-specific activities from Iraq. Kurdistan government says that "Kurds were forbidden to speak Kurdish in public; they had to change their names to local ethnic names if they wanted a job or to enroll their children in school."

The challenges they face are related to the codes of the Kurds men wearing beards and women wearing Hijab expose them to harassment and racism in various places, including schools, hospitals, and even at the workplace. Research on the cultural practices of the Kurds and their road to independence from the oppressive Iraqi government and constant cultural conflict with their neighboring communities features various incidences. Most of the cases involve the Kurd's access to different commercial services within the jurisdiction of the Iraqi government. Iraq government authorities have denied Kurdistan their rights, claiming that the group does not exhibit the ability to rule itself, given its association with terrorism. It results in offending the Kurds with symbols of personal subjective culture taken by ruling the Iraqi government, making them into the objective culture for individuals to consume irrespective of if there is a link to the stem of the culture. The material culture of the Kurds becomes separated from them with items becoming reified as a discrete object existing separately and objectively from the original culture and groups that developed it.

Grounded on the research findings of Kurdistan, the Kurdish experiences a lot of cultural humiliation and psychosocial torture due to the different cultural practices and values of its neighboring communities. Studies on Kurds indicate that the Iraqi government developed an approach of restraining the Kurds to a small space where they cannot express their complaints. Their fear of talking exists due to the monopolistic nature of the Iraqi government and other authorities in Northern states. The Iraqi Kurdistan ethnic group has endured cultural suppression for a long time due to forced assimilation by the native political giants. The ethical and leadership issues associated with the Iraqi government and Kurds help in better understanding their culture.

Cultural Learning Competence Relation to Military Deployments

Cultural learning competence entails the ability of the soldier during operations to gain insights into the socio-cultural setting for operations rapidly. The interaction of soldiers with the local community or society in the area of deployment is required to have a rudimentary understanding of the fundamental aspects of their culture (Caligiuri et al., 2011). In the case of the Kurds, the traditional Kurdish music culture comprises various musical instruments that make artistic products attractive, including flutes, tu-tu, and ordinary drums (Kurdistan government, 2019). In the case of commercial, expressive art, and material culture dimensions, the Kurds utilize arts and craft to demonstrate their creativity. Most of their carpets and rugs have a floral appeal that puts their product in a high-quality medallion pattern. The patterns, coupled with the high number of mats the community tradesmen would produce in a short duration, also indicate the skills applied in manufacturing the products. Other cultural craft items displayed by the group are the use of leather materials, metal ornamentations, and the famous embroideries that enrich their culture with traditional attires. Regarding sports as a social structure of the Kurds, some of the educational games include hunting, shooting competitions, football matches, wrestling, and the most popular Cirit sport. Considering all these cultural aspects, proper awareness of the elements of the Kurds culture guarantees interaction without any culturally based conflict.

Cultural learning allows the soldier to utilize his understanding of the different domains of the Kurd's culture and know how they apply them to a specific situation such as a meeting with the clan’s elders. More so, the knowledge of the different areas allows the soldier to interact with indigenous populations efficiently and anticipate any potential difficulties (Caligiuri et al., 2011). Learning cross-culturally provides the soldier with the ability to gain a basic knowledge of the specific local culture in various broad terms. Military unit's geo-political and cultural knowledge, respect, acceptance, and understanding, are essential to the success of military operations in a full degree (Department of the Army, 2015). The cultural variety requires adaptability, respect, tolerance, understanding, patience, and awareness for success. These aspects are essential in ensuring the mission is successful without causing any cultural upheaval.

Cultural competence training is vital in the contemporary military, focusing on cultural heritage awareness and safeguarding societies. Research on cultural property protection value indicates that the value ranks the highest prior to and after training, whereas the knowledge concerning property recovery rates is very minimal in the pre-and post-training (Svec, 2014). Cultural competence allows individuals to go further in saving lives and resources ensuring the success of the mission.

Also, cross-cultural competence deals with skills, motivation, and knowledge enabling the soldiers to adapt efficiently in environments containing different cultures from which they are familiar. Culturally competent skills enable the military units to engage while encountering items of cultural significance, including instruments, paintings, and sculptures (Svec, 2014) appropriately. Over the years, there have been various headlines demonstrating how the military behaves poorly intentionally or unintentionally with disregard for other people's cultural heritage. For instance, the U.S. military expanded its camp in Afghanistan in 2009 with no consideration of the local landscape and culture, blocking ancient and still utilized water systems and upsetting the locals (Svec, 2014). The preservation of other societies' cultural heritage provides the chance to help reconstruct relationships within countries. Also, it contributes to unified operations, shows respect to coalition forces, and creates substantial opportunities to partner in positive ways (Svec, 2014). The research indicates that training involving cultural heritage provides no experience to soldiers; a few of them have no awareness value of cultural heritage, and little cultural efficacy of knowledge (Svec, 2014). Svec's (2014) research indicates a few of the participants perceived cultural heritage as irrelevant to them, while past training resulted in several respondents viewing the destruction of cultural property in a new manner.