An assessment of the ability of U.S. Department of Defense and the services to measure and track language and culture training and capabilities among general purpose forces

The Defense Language Office tasked MITRE Corporation and the RAND National Defense Research Institute to jointly address questions concerning the U.S. Department of Defense's ability to measure and track the language, regional expertise, and culture (LREC) training and capabilities of general purpose forces (GPF). The authors used interviews with LREC practitioners and policymakers, a policy review, an academic literature review, and an analysis of survey data to address the research questions. Immediate recommendations include standardizing terms, developing measures of mission effectiveness, and collecting data to assess connections between LREC training and skills and mission success. Long-term planning should include efforts to develop a strong infrastructure across LREC stakeholders such that information can easily be shared, a theoretically sound causal model linking LREC skills to mission success, and tests of skills linked to mission readiness. The ultimate goal of these activities is to develop a set of readiness metrics, both at the general level for all GPF and at the mission-specific level, when specialized LREC skills may be required.