Dynamics of Force Structure Innovation. The Cases of Female Engagement Teams and Female Assessment/Analysis Support Teams

This thesis makes an innovative contribution to the burgeoning literature on force structure innovations in Security Studies. Specifically, it looks at the emergence and spread of the Female Engagement Team (FET) as a never explored, yet key, force structure innovation in the military throughout the 2000s. Over the last 14 years, United States (US) FETs—intended as female squads from various armed forces branches aiming to support commanders by engaging with local populations, particularly women, to better understand their realities and needs—have improved dramatically as a program and have been implemented by more than 25 armed forces worldwide. Not only that, but almost simultaneously another initiative—the Female Analysis/Assessment Support Team (FAST)—arose from a modified version of the original FET program, which was employed in an apparently similar but actually different manner; and finally, the program’s initial nature (foreign use) was adjusted to allow for local application, namely the “Domestic Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC)” Approach. Such alterations and transformations, which are only a few of the changes that FET has undergone over the years, have provoked reactions from both military forces and civilian communities, ranging from skepticism to acknowledgment as essential intelligence sources. As a result, the goal of this dissertation is to explain what I believe are the central dynamics of FET modifications over the past 14 years as a previously unknown example of force structure innovation. Based on an extensive number of primary materials including fieldwork and in-depth interviews, this thesis employed a qualitative study to respond to three critical questions and provide the first, finegrained empirical analyses of the Female Engagement Team (FET) and Female Assessment/ Analysis Support Team (FAST) initiatives. First, I build on Roger’s theory of innovation diffusion to present the Innovation Cascade Model (ICM), explaining the subsequent spread of FETs throughout armed forces and operational theaters. I demonstrate how direct or indirect access to invention, combined with the innovator’s broad consideration of allies and related nations, influenced the timing of transmission FETs. As a result, the first countries to adopt the FET were US North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Allies stationed in the same operational theatre as the US, followed by United Nations (UN) Troop Contributing Countries (TCC) and, ultimately, Middle Eastern partners. Second, I inquire over the mechanisms driving command authorities serving in operational warfare to adapt or innovate on the ground. I propose a commander-centered theory, which clarifies mid-level leader’s (Senior and Junior Officers) role in inspiring a transformative vision and fostering reform by generating or adopting (emulating) innovations to match new operational demands. I find that information asymmetry between the commander and progress of the mission affected leadership’s ability to innovate. This variable is shaped, in turn, by commanders’ acumen to make the most of lessons learned (LL) and advocate the need for change. These experiences serve as framework for the first analyses of Italian emulation of the FET program in Afghanistan and creation of the FAST initiative in Lebanon. Finally, I propose to explicitly grasp the distinguishing characteristics of military-military collaboration, which have a substantial impact on the manner and environment in which military practices spread, as well as their potential advancement. In doing so, I describe military-military contact in the context of bilateral operations, emphasizing its importance in developing creative ideas and improving training and deployment. I depict the interaction of Italian CIMIC staff with their Lebanese CIMIC partners within the framework of the Italian Bilateral Mission in Lebanon (MIBIL) to demonstrate how such an interface has generated a meaningful reinterpretation of how to perform CIMIC in the field to use it outside of the expeditionary setting and instead execute it in a homeland scenario (“Domestic CIMIC”).