By Major Thomas Dyrenforth, U.S. Army and Major Sean McMahon, U.S. Army
Copyright:https://faoajournal.substack.com/p/strengthening-us-strategic-influence
Published at RIEAS web site (www.rieas.gr) on 1 February 2020
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
Introduction
In 2017, the United States budgeted over $100 million for the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program. However, no standard metric exists to determine whether this program is a success. Additionally, although several indicators suggest that the most strategically valuable aspect of the IMET program is the individual relationships it establishes between students and the U.S. government, graduate management and continued engagement are non-standardized and largely neglected. This paper identifies measurements of program effectiveness as a key knowledge gap in assessing the IMET program’s level of success. Additionally, the authors conclude that lack of coordinated IMET graduate management has resulted in significant underutilization of key strategic resources. Therefore, this paper recommends that improvements must be made to program metrics and graduate management in order to realize maximum benefit from the IMET program. Read more