Foreign Military Training: Building Effective Armed Forces in Weak States
Program: DECUR Partnership
Co-Principal Investigators: Will Reno, Northwestern University and Ryan Burke, United States Air Force Academy and Lt. Col./Dr. Jahara “Franky” Matisek, U.S. Naval War College
Years of Award: 2020-2026
Years of Award: 2020-2022
Managing Service Agency: Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Project Description:
Foreign Military Training (FMT) is a core element of U.S efforts to build defense relationships that promote U.S security interests, and figures prominently in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union (EU) strategic objectives in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Though FMT can produce highly effective military units, it also has created few intended and many unintended outcomes. This updated and extended research program captures the entirety of the FMT process from design to provision to absorption stages. We aim to capture the impact of US, NATO, and EU partner FMT to host-nation soldiers, FMT recipient definition of goals and absorption and varied organizational outcomes. Fieldwork locations include: Sahel African countries, Iraq, Afghanistan (until 2021), Philippines, Taiwan, Eastern Europe, and other locations in Europe where Ukrainian soldiers are being trained and equipped. The research seeks to better understand 1) how the US, NATO, EU, and provider partners design FMT doctrines in line with their national interest and broader alliance objectives; 2) how FMT implementers design their Lines of Effort to align with national interests, doctrine, and the realities of the recipient political context; 3) how the congruity or incongruity between provider and recipient’s desired end-states shape FMT outcomes; 4) how FMT provision shapes recipient country political calculations and how that impacts patronage-based ruling coalitions; 5) how FMT provision is creating a global epistemic community of military professionals; and 6) the generation of a FMT Maturity Model that identifies and refines best practices across FMT phases. This project increases social science expertise across the DOD and academia by developing wider professional networks that are determined to improve Western Security Force Assistance (SFA). The FMT Maturity Model will be integrated into revised FMT training manuals and elements of this research will be used to support new coursework at PMEs that emphasize how to best deliver SFA. This research will be a cornerstone of an ongoing research partnership between USAFA, Northwestern University, U.S. Naval War College, and numerous other think-tanks, institutes, and Western PMEs. The research also aims to inform DOD missions to develop allied and partner military capabilities for self-defense and coalition operations and fairly share responsibilities for common defense, which all support the development of integrated deterrence.
Select Publications:
Policy Relevant:
Alex Chinchilla, Jahara Matisek, and Will Reno, “The Polish Experiment in Military Advising: Improving the European Union Training Mission to Ukraine,” Modern War Institute, 14 October 2024.
Jahara Matisek, Sascha E. Ostania, and William Reno, “What Does European Union Advising of Ukrainian Troops Mean for the Bloc's Security Policies? An Inside Look at the Training Mission,” Modern War Institute, 11 June 2024.
Alexander Crowther, Jahara Matisek, and Phillips P. O’Brien, “Europe—but Not NATO—Should Send Troops to Ukraine,” Foreign Affairs, 22 April 2024.
Alexander Crowther and Jahara Matisek, “European Leaders Should Send Troops to Ukraine,” World Politics Review, 2 April 2024.
Jahara Matisek, David Plaster, and Will Reno, “Ukraine’s War on Four Fronts,” European Resilience Initiative Center (ERIC), 10 March 2024.
Alexander Crowther and Jahara Matisek, “Time to Send EU Forces to Ukraine,” Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), 28 February 2024.
Jahara Matisek, Will Reno, and Anthony Tingle, “Weathering the Storm: Western Security Assistance on the Defensive in Ukraine,” RUSI, 23 February 2024.
Brian Chao, Jahara Matisek, and Will Reno, “Five Recommendations for Left of Boom Security Assistance to Taiwan,” War on the Rocks, 18 December 2023.
Jahara Matisek and Will Reno, “It's Time to Ukrainify US Military Assistance.” Modern War Institute, 10 November 2023.
Jahara Matisek, “To Coup or Not to Coup: The Cold War Hangover of US Security Assistance.” Irregular Warfare Initiative, 26 September 2023.
Jahara Matisek, Will Reno, and Sam Rosenberg, “Ukraine’s Other Allies: The West Should Assist the Private Actors Helping Arm Kyiv,” Foreign Affairs, 19 July 2023.
Jahara Matisek and Will Reno, “Ukraine Can Point the Pentagon Toward a New Way of War,” Wall Street Journal, 3 May 2023.
Alex Chinchilla and Jahara Matisek, “Ukraine’s Hidden Advantage: How European Trainers Have Transformed Kyiv’s Army and Changed the War,” Foreign Affairs, 11 May 2023.
Jahara Matisek, Will Reno, and Sam Rosenberg, “More than a Hobby: Informal Security Assistance to Ukraine.” War on the Rocks, 17 April 2023.
Jahara Matisek, Will Reno, and Sam Rosenberg, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Assessing a Year of Military Aid to Ukraine.” RUSI, 22 February 2023.
Jahara Matisek, Will Reno, and Sam Rosenberg, “More Bang for the SFA Buck: Improving US Security Force Assistance in Ukraine and Beyond.” Modern War Institute, 15 February 2023.
Jahara Matisek, Will Reno, and Sam Rosenberg, “US-led Security Assistance to Ukraine is Working.” RUSI, 8 February 2023.
Jahara Matisek and Will Reno, “Meet the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Brigade, A Little-Known Unit that Presents a New Model for Security Cooperation.” Modern War Institute, 28 September 2022.
Jahara Matisek, “Reinventing Expeditionary Excellence: A New Marine Corps Spirit for 21st Century Warfare,” Marine Corps Gazette 106, no.2 (February 2022): 62-66.
Jahara Matisek and Will Reno, “Back to the Future: Security Force Assistance after Afghanistan and the End of the US Strategic Vacation.” Modern War Institute, 29 December 2021.
Jahara Matisek, “Requiem for the Afghan “Fabergé Egg” Army: Why did it Crack so quickly?” Modern War Institute: Irregular Warfare Initiative, 28 October 2021.
Peer-Reviewed:
Jeremy M. McKenzie, Chad M. Pillai, Ryan R. Duffy and Jahara Matisek, “Fighting and Winning in the Arctic: Improving Polar Warfare Capabilities,” Defense & Security Analysis (October 2024).
Olga Chiriac and Jahara Matisek, “Strategic Communication and Security Force Assistance: Critical Components for Ukrainian Success?” The Defence Horizon Journal (29 December 2022).
Jahara Matisek and Will Reno, “Canadian Foreign Military Training: What Good is it among other Allied Providers?” CDA Institute: On Track, no. 29 (November 2022): 13-32.
Nils Zimmermann, Ivor Wiltenburg, and Jahara Matisek, “Supporting African Partner States through European Military Assistance Programmes.” RUSI Journal 167, no. 3 (2022): 42-53.
Øystein H. Rolandsen, Maggie Dwyer, and William Reno, “Security Force Assistance to fragile states: A framework of analysis,” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 15, no. 5 (2021): 563-579.
Austin G. Commons and Jahara Matisek, “Thinking outside of the Sandbox: Succeeding at Security Force Assistance beyond the Middle East.” Military Review (March/April 2021): 33-42.
Colin D. Robinson and Jahara Matisek, “Military advising and assistance in Somalia: Fragmented interveners, Fragmented Somali military forces.” Defence Studies 21, no. 2 (February 2021): 181-203.
Colin D. Robinson and Jahara Matisek, “Assistance to Locally Appropriate Military Forces in Southern Somalia: Bypassing Mogadishu for Local Legitimacy.” RUSI Journal 165, no. 4 (2020): 68-78.
Jahara Matisek, “International Competition to Provide Security Force Assistance in Africa: Civil-Military Relations Matter.” PRISM: Journal of Complex Operations 9, no. 1 (October 2020).
Nils Zimmerman and Jahara Matisek, “A Developmental Role for Militaries in Africa: The Peace Engineering Corps Solution.” Sicherheit und Frieden, 38, no. 2 (2020): 112-117.
Jahara Matisek and Mike Fowler, “The Paradox of Security Force Assistance after the rise and fall of the Islamic State in Syria-Iraq.” Special Operations Journal 6, no.2 (2020): 118-138.
Jahara Matisek and Cadet Josh Williamson, “Limited Wars in the Periphery: The Dilemma of American Military Assistance.” Expeditions with Marine Corps University Press (June 2020).