12:02AM
Negotiation 101 for SysAdminers
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 at 12:02AM 
USA Today story on how Army is teaching negotiation skills to West Point cadets.
H.R. McMaster quoted approvingly.
Details:
Until recently, the Army had put little effort into figuring out what makes a successful negotiation. West Point began offering course in negotiating as a leadership skill in 2006 and last year started the West Point Negotiating Project to spread the training throughout the Army.
Good stuff. Hell, I would love to take a course like that myself.
Usual alarming quote from Col Gian Gentile saying we're turning the force into a big bunch of wusses.
Reader Comments (3)
Where is State? Why are military officers expected to negotiate? I believe that the military should be one of the components of "negotiation." In the "carrot and the stick" method the military is the "stick." I don't think educating officers or exposing them to material that is not strictly standard "shoot, move and communicate" stuff is going to turn them into sissies. However...
I don't like using combat arms units to try and "make friends." When it doesn't work, you have to tell the very same 19 year old infantryman to start shooting his former "friends." I don't like it.
I don't want someone on the embassy staff trying to figure out how to assault a mountain stronghold. Let people do the job they are trained for.
What I see going on here is this...We are in very dangerous places. The only people we can put in these dangerous places are soldiers and marines. So instead of admitting that the place is a combat zone, we try to make the military do things that other agencies would be doing in a "normal" operation. Afghanistan is supposed to have a legitimate government. If that is true, where are it's representatives? Why does some Lt. Colonel from the 10th Mountain Division have to figure out where to get books for the school house or who gets to use the well on Omar's land?
This book was a major source for grad school Negotiating class I had:
"Getting to Yes" by Fisher, William L. Ury and Patton.
We used their scheme for all of the negotiation exercises we did.
Sometimes to win the war, you must rein back the guys who kill people and break things. Tom, you magnificent bastard! They read your book!