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As an exchange officer, I spent many hours in the offices of senior Jordanian officers. I sat and watched as a variety of internal and external guests would come, sit, drink tea, exchange pleasantries and then leave. As the hours of this activity passed, I initially thought to myself, "What a waste of time! They did not do anything!" Later I realized that this was the regular process of making and /or strengthening web connections. From their cultural perspective, the people who entered the office were doing something as important as checking off an item on a to-do list.
Military personnel from Middle Eastern cultures differ from U.S. military personnel. This is not simply about differences on the surface - we do not see the world the same way. When a U.S. Army soldier enters a room for a meeting in the Middle East, that soldier is not coming into the room with the same vision of the issues to be discussed as is his Middle Eastern counterpart. This means that events are not perceived in the same way, and techniques for accomplishing tasks will be viewed through a different lens.
There has been a great deal of interaction between the U.S. military and the people of Iraq and of Afghanistan, and working relationships have improved over time. This does not necessarily mean, however, that the other cultures are "coming around" to a Western way of thinking; they are probably adapting their practices to appease the current power broker. If we want to achieve real and lasting transformations, we need to first understand the underlying differences and then make adjustments to shape the discussion in a way that will assist in accomplishing our goals and desires.
The following is a simple analogy to explain this difference. As with any analogy, there are flaws and imperfections; I ask the reader to indulge in a little imaginative thinking when accepting this analogy.
Americans Are to Bees As Arabs Are to Spiders
The bee is defined by individual capabilities that allow it to accomplish its role within a larger community. The bee is a team player who has three main descriptors: task oriented, analysis driven and information sharing.
A bee sees its day as task oriented: It has...