Small Wars Journal

Counterinsurgency is Here to Stay: Marines Plan to Double Foreign Military Training Adviser Group

Thu, 10/11/2018 - 12:42am

Counterinsurgency is Here to Stay: Marines Plan to Double Foreign Military Training Adviser Group by Shawn Snow - Marine Corps Times

While the Marines and the U.S. military are amid an overhaul to prep the force for a fight with near-peer adversaries, the Corps hasn’t lost focus on its counterinsurgency mission.

And on Wednesday, the top Marine told reporters at a media roundtable event that the Corps plans to double its foreign military training adviser group that aids in stability operations and helps train future Marine foreign advisers.

While America’s focus is once again on great power competition, that “doesn’t mean we are going to forget or forgo the requirements to be able to do counterinsurgency or stability ops,” Gen. Robert B. Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps, told reporters Wednesday.

In 2012, the Corps stood up the Marine Corps Security Cooperation Group, or MCSCG, which carries out foreign military training and cooperation and trains Marine advisors preparing to deploy overseas with cultural and immersion training and foreign weapons handling…

Read on.