Barriers to Adaptability in a Multinational Team

Abstract

The majority of current military missions require collaboration among multiple nations. For example, the military presence established in Bosnia-Herzegovina (B-H) following the end of their civil war included participants from over 38 nations. U.S. Army forces were assigned to the headquarters element and to Multinational Division North (MND(N)). We reviewed processes of the U.S. Army force commanding MND(N) to assess the degree to which army forces were being prepared to adapt their warfighting skills to conduct multinational peacekeeping missions. Barriers to adaptability were identified in their approach to deployment training and the organization of the military headquarters. U.S. forces were not trained to work with multinational partners and multinational staff members were not integrated into staff planning processes. Methods to improve team adaptability and a framework for considering the relationship among cultural, social cognitive processes and multinational teamwork are proposed.