Military Police contains information about military police functions in maneuver and mobility support, area security, law and order, internment/resettlement, and police intelligence operations.
Issue link: https://militarypolice.epubxp.com/i/115206
Military Police Operations in a Multinational
Coalition Peacekeeping Environment
Coalition peacekeeping operations often take place in
complex, chaotic, and unpredictable environments. The
local intervention zone often remains in, or is just outside of,
a state of war or turmoil. Strong leadership is demanded at
all levels in such unstructured operational areas. In addition
to the complexity of traditional military police interventions,
coalition peacekeeping interventions most often involve
multinational units. Therefore, military police personnel are
often confronted with signi¿cant cultural differences not
only between themselves and the host culture (with which
they must interact to bring quick relief to civilian victims),
but also among the members of their own multinational unit.
In addition to managing the chaotic situation and respecting
mission-speci¿c rules of engagement, military police leaders
and Soldiers must also build effective, high-performing
multinational units within a limited time frame.
Compared to a monocultural environment, a multinational
environment calls for additional cross-cultural competencies—particularly in the areas of interpersonal communication, problem solving, and decisionmaking. Signi¿cant cultural differences between multinational coalition troops and
the host country and among troops present a barrier to successful mission command from the coalition. In such an environment, military police leaders must establish a system that
works throughout the various cultures to achieve mission success. One of the most important success factors in implementing such a system is good interpersonal interaction between
leaders at all levels and from all different nationalities.
Most psychological research on successful cross-cultural
leadership focuses on individual leadership competencies in
a cross-cultural environment. For example, successful crosscultural leaders use what researchers refer to as a "cultural
lens" to "see" things from a different perspective and through
different "eyes." This competency helps leaders to understand
the motives and reasons of others and to predict their behaviors
and reactions.
In addition to individual cross-cultural competencies,
team cross-cultural competencies also need to be integrated
into military police training. Research has indicated that
successful cross-cultural teams develop and de¿ne new group
cultures that lead to the establishment of mutual trust between
individual team members from different cultures. However,
the process of implementing the new group culture takes much
longer than it does for monocultural groups. As a result, more
opportunities are required for individuals within multicultural
groups to get to know each other and to develop their group
culture.
The focus of military police training for individual and
team cross-cultural competencies should be placed on real-life
scenarios, rather than on general theoretical reÀections about
cross-cultural competencies. The closer the training situation approximates the natural environment, the more useful
the training will be. Cross-culturally competent behavior is
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based on the ability of leaders to understand and manage the
dynamics of a team and on individual cross-cultural competencies. Military police leaders and Soldiers must be trained and
prepared for cross-cultural interaction, problem solving, and
command execution to ensure that processes and actions are
well rehearsed and that they result in successful multinational
peacekeeping missions.
Conclusion
The U.S. Military Police Corps conducts uni¿ed
land operations in support of maneuver commanders in
counterinsurgency and stability operations environments.
This often requires that the military police organization
train and professionalize indigenous police forces; establish
and implement a rule of law program; determine doctrine,
organization, training, materiel, leadership and education,
personnel, and facilities (DOTMLPF) requirements; and
perform other law enforcement-related functions. In addition
to their rigorous professional training, military police must
achieve cross-cultural competency and an awareness of ethical
procedures, as these are key to the success of military police
multivariate missions.
Endnotes:
1
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights," United Nations,
1948,