What’s It Like? Changing Places

As an action officer for multinational operations and interoperability at TJAGLCS, Dr. Ganschow frequently augmented and observed the legal function at various multinational large scale operations exercises, thereby capturing lessons learned and supporting the U.S. legal teams. (Photo courtesy of authors)

What’s It Like?

Changing Places

A U.S. and a German Exchange Officer

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By Dr. Jan Ganschow and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Michaels

The U.S. Army engages in numerous exchanges with allied partner countries1 to maximize alliances and partnerships by building capacity and strengthening relationships in support of global strategies. On an operational level, exchanges are meant to increase cooperation by integrating U.S. and partner-nation military personnel across various positions at the unit level. On an individual level, exchanges empower military personnel with the knowledge, skills, and cultural context to effectively support multinational operations. They also offer unique opportunities for individuals to seize once-in-a-lifetime professional and personal experiences abroad.

From a multinational interoperability perspective, legal support is crucial to the success of overseas missions and effective collective defense.2 In recognition of this reality, there are currently four U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps members in exchange officer positions with allied armed forces: two in the United Kingdom, one in Australia, and one in Poland. The JAG Corps also hosts partner nation exchange officers in the United States at the Center for Law and Military Operations (CLAMO) in Charlottesville, Virginia.3

The following interviews shed some light on the work and life as an exchange officer in both the United States and Poland. Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Robert Michaels is the U.S. Army exchange officer with General Command Warsaw, Poland. Regierungsdirektor4 Dr. Jan Ganschow is the German exchange officer with CLAMO.

Please introduce yourselves briefly.

Dr. Ganschow: I am a civil servant with the German Armed Forces legal service, where I’ve served as a law teacher, a legal advisor, and a military prosecutor on several levels of command and have also deployed to missions abroad. I am a fully trained lawyer and wrote a Ph.D. thesis on the law of armed conflict at the University of Hamburg. I also hold an LL.M. in international law and politics from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. I was a regular soldier and pursued a reserve officer career, where I served as a platoon leader, company commander, and S3 staff officer. When supporting active military exercises or deployed, I serve as a lieutenant colonel.

LTC Michaels:I am originally from Pennsylvania and attended Penn State University for both my undergraduate and law school studies, receiving a B.A. in political science and a J.D. I have an LL.M. from The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS). I am a member of the Pennsylvania bar. In January 2006, I entered active duty as a direct commissionee and have served on active duty ever since. My assignments are very typical of a JAG Corps officer, including time as a legal assistance attorney, administrative law attorney, operational law attorney, brigade judge advocate (BJA), and a variety of criminal law assignments. I deployed to Iraq with the 1st Cavalry Division in 2006-07 and served tours in Europe and Korea. Most recently, I served as the Deputy Chief of Operations in the Criminal Law Division, Office of The Judge Advocate General (OTJAG) at the Pentagon.

Can you tell us about the German and Polish Armed Forces legal services?

Dr. Ganschow:In addition to the armed forces, the Bundeswehr administration, and the military pastoral care, the legal service in the Bundeswehr is an independent division under the Federal Ministry of Defense (MoD). Unlike in former (historical) German Armed Forces, the legal service of the Bundeswehr is civilian. When it was founded after World War II, a civilian legal service was considered the right choice to establish a legal element that is more independent from the chain of command and might have a rather pacifying impact on the armed forces than in previous German armies.

LTC Michaels:The Polish military legal community is small when compared to that of the United States. The legal service is headed by a civilian at the Ministry of Defence, with senior uniformed subordinates at the General Staff of the Armed Forces, General Command, and Operational Command. The senior-ranking uniformed legal advisors are colonels. The Polish Ministry of Defence also has an independent military justice system composed of district courts with independent military judges and prosecutors. Much like the United States, the Polish Armed Forces legal services are composed of both uniformed and civilian members.

The Center for Law and Military Operations consists of a joint, interagency, and multinational team of operational law experts (Dr. Ganschow in civilian attire). (Credit: Billie Suttles, TJAGLCS)

What are the German and Polish Armed Forces legal services responsible for?

Dr. Ganschow:In the German Armed Forces, members of the judiciary sector are primarily responsible for supervising legal matters, in particular, military law issues—including law of armed conflict and operational law—and to provide legal education and leader training.

The consistent realignment of the German Armed Forces on missions for state and collective defense as well as the fight against transnational terrorism requires an adapted armed forces skill profile and the areas that support them. For members of the legal service, this means their service is also tailored to the requirements in Germany and abroad and the ever-changing challenges that the multinational integration of armed forces pose. The unity of law and military operations also requires legal advisors to participate in planning exercises and assignments throughout the Bundeswehr’s range of tasks.

LTC Michaels:The responsibilities of the Polish Armed Forces legal services are very dependent and specific to the major subordinate organizations within the Ministry of Defence.

The Polish General Command of the Armed Forces (GENCOM) is the force-generating and force-providing structure within the Ministry of Defence. It is a three-star-level command based in Warsaw, comparable to a joint-service version of U.S. Army Forces Command. For the majority of my tenure in GENCOM, the commander was a four-star army general, one of two in the Polish Armed Forces. The GENCOM legal department is responsible for providing full-spectrum legal advice on a broad variety of issues. These include agreements to allow foreign forces into Poland, training and operational agreements with foreign militaries, fiscal and contract law, and analyzing and reviewing legislative proposals that impact the Polish military. The head of the GENCOM legal department is also directly responsible for providing and training legal advisors for division-level elements across the Polish military.

The Operational Command of the Armed Forces is most comparable to a U.S. combatant command. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is a three-star-level command whose senior legal advisor is a colonel. Operational Command is responsible for real-world combat or contingency operations involving all branches of the Polish military. This includes the current Ukrainian Crisis. The legal team at Operational Command is heavily focused on the law of armed conflict, rules of engagement for particular missions, rules for the use of force, and the applicability of those authorities to foreign forces in Poland.

The relationship between the legal advisors and commanders in the Polish military is very similar to that of judge advocates (JAs) and commanders in the United States. It is a position of trust with access to the commander not enjoyed by other staff sections. There is the expectation that the legal advisor will be able to not only provide legal advice but also provide a different way of analyzing a myriad of issues not limited to the law. As changes to duty positions are far less frequent in the Polish military, legal advisors often have long and close relationships with the commanders they advise.

Team CLAMO celebrates the birthday of its German exchange officer, Dr. Ganschow, who is cutting the cake. (Photo courtesy of authors)

What is the career path of an officer in the Polish and the German Armed Forces legal service?

Dr. Ganschow:More than 1,000 lawyers work in the Bundeswehr in the areas of armaments, personnel, organization, budget or contract, and general legal matters. The vast majority are civil servants, but some are also soldiers or judges. They take on demanding tasks from opposition and court proceedings to litigation.

About 280 individuals are employed in the legal service of the Bundeswehr. The legal service occupies a special position between the military administration and the armed forces. Members of the legal service are civil servants in the higher administrative service with the qualification to serve as judges, but they occupy military posts. The Bundeswehr’s legal service includes legal advisors, legal teachers in the armed forces, military disciplinary lawyers, and judges in military service courts.

German legal advisors have a very diverse field of work. As civil servants, through their activities, they participate in the performance of the military mission of the armed forces and help ensure that this is done within the framework of applicable law. Legal advisors are part of the only civilian area of the Bundeswehr that is obliged to provide military training by official mandate. Unserved civil servants are trained accordingly through general soldier training, even while many men still have military experience as a former conscript or regular soldier (usually as a reserve officer).

Because of the diverse area of occupation in the legal service of the German Armed Forces, there is no strict career path that every German legal advisor must pursue. However, most of us start either as a law teacher at one of the Bundeswehr schools or as a legal advisor and military prosecutor at the tactical level with, for example, a division headquarters. After that, working at the operational level—such as an armed forces component command or higher education institution—should be the goal, as well as taking part in a German Armed Forces mission abroad. In a highly selective process, it might be possible to work for a while in the Legal Department of the Federal Ministry of Defence in Berlin or Bonn, or to become a judge at one of the military service courts. International assignments, such as Belgium, the United States, or the Netherlands are also possible. All this regularly entails moving to a new location every two to three years. Institutionally, the goal of this general career path is to increase the breadth of assignments and to enable the civil servant to gain a variety of experience that empowers them to achieve the best possible work results. Individually, the goal is to make it the rank of Regierungsdirektor, which is comparable to lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army.

LTC Michaels:The career path of an officer in the Polish legal services is vastly different from that of a JA, which is also a reflection of the differences between the U.S. and Polish legal systems. In Poland, after completing basic legal studies, individuals undergo an apprenticeship before taking the exams to become licensed attorneys. Many legal advisors in the Polish military legal services are working in these apprentice roles and are simultaneously preparing for their certification exams. Promotion opportunities and selection for more senior positions are tied to progress in these studies and the ability to pass certification exams.

Many junior legal advisors start their careers assigned to home units at brigade or division levels or their sister service equivalent. They can then be selected to serve temporary duty periods at higher echelons, which can be a prelude to a future permanent assignment at a headquarters, such as General or Operational Command. Promotions are tied to the particular position of the legal advisor rather than a specific period of time in service.

Legal advisors in the Polish military move and change positions far less frequently than in the U.S. Army JAG Corps. As a result, legal advisors tend to have more defined specialties in particular areas of practice. For example, the current head of the legal department at Operational Command has served in some capacity within that organization for over ten years. As such, she is the premier specialist in operational law in the Polish Armed Forces. When a duty assignment does change, Polish officers rarely move their families. It is common practice to rent an apartment at the new duty location, live at that new duty location during the week, and travel home on weekends to spend time with family.

Like the U.S. Army JAG Corps, the Polish legal community is composed of both military and civilian personnel. General Command has both military and civilian attorneys as well as civilian paralegals and support staff. The community is relatively small and close knit. Under the entire umbrella of General Command, there are approximately 100 military and civilian legal personnel.

Dr. Ganschow participated as a grey-cell legal advisor during the Legal Wargame Baltic Gavel 2023 at Marine Forces Command on Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads, VA. (Photo courtesy of authors)

What is your task/mission at your exchange officer position?

Dr. Ganschow:I am CLAMO’s action officer for multinational operations and interoperability. This position consists of the following primary duties: I engage and liaise with U.S. and other partner legal professionals and offices supporting operations during multinational training exercises. This includes developing training and engagement plans to identify and resolve legal friction points related to legal interoperability before operations commence. I work with the observer coach/trainer (OC/T) teams at the U.S. Army training centers and Mission Command Training Program (MCTP) to enhance multinational exercise training opportunities for legal personnel.

In 2022, I was embedded for nearly four weeks with the legal OC/T at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, and observed the large-scale combat operation exercise ALLIED SPIRIT 22.5 Prior to that, in 2021, I attended the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) deterrence-focused exercise STEADFAST JUPITER 21 at the Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger, Norway.6 I participated in these multinational training exercises as an augmentee to the legal training audience to coach and mentor participants as well as capture lessons learned related to legal interoperability. After these exercises, I draft after-exercise reports, key-leader talking points, topical podcasts, relevant book reviews, and practitioner articles for dissemination and publication.

I also develop training packages and resources for the broader legal professional field and develop and execute training events to further legal interoperability. I have the privilege of collaborating with appropriate U.S. Army JAG Corps offices to share doctrine, education, and training for legal professionals related to multinational operations and interoperability. It is a particular pleasure to assist the National Security Law Department at TJAGLCS in providing instruction to JAs, Department of Defense Civilian attorneys, and paralegals on coalitions operations.

Last but not least, I coordinate with the MoD, Directorate-General for Legal Affairs, for German legal advisor attendance at U.S. legal courses and events and U.S. attendance at German legal courses and events to further interoperability between the United States and Germany.

LTC Michaels:I am an operational law attorney at GENCOM. The position is responsible for the following primary duties: I am GENCOM’s action officer for legal interoperability issues in multinational operations and exercises. I also serve as a legal planner across GENCOM’s current, future, and long-range planning horizons. Finally, I work to expand the development of operational law within the Polish land forces through training, conducting lessons-learned exercises, producing doctrine, writing publications, and engaging in special projects. In addition, I am responsible for planning regular joint training opportunities between U.S. JAs in Poland and the Polish military legal community.

On a daily basis, I am tasked with reviewing agreements between the Republic of Poland and other nations for multinational training exercises and operations. This has required gaining a working knowledge of Polish law as well as the NATO governing documents, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the United States and Poland, and various bilateral agreements between Poland and other partner nations. The GENCOM commander also holds a daily morning briefing. Twice weekly, the briefing is conducted in English and I am tasked with attending those meetings for the legal department.

I have also been assigned numerous strategic engagements with various legal communities in Poland. The goal of these engagements is to foster a better understanding of legal interoperability between the United States and Poland and the role of the JA in the U.S. military. I have delivered remarks to the Polish War Studies Institute, the Polish Law of War Society, the Warsaw Military District Court, and subordinate units under GENCOM. These engagements have been extremely rewarding experiences. Not surprisingly, most of the attendees’ knowledge about JAs has been gained from watching A Few Good Men7 and the TV series JAG.8 There is a general fascination with our real-world roles and the attendees eagerly ask questions during the presentations.

One of the significant substantive areas of the law in which I have recently been engaged is legal interoperability as it pertains to what laws U.S. forces are obligated to follow while in Poland during a legal state of peace and neutrality. The United States and Poland have decades of experience operating together in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. However, we are now faced with the challenge of operating under the authority of host-nation domestic law with the permission of the President of the Republic of Poland. As the U.S. military footprint in Poland grows, so will our need for JAs with a working knowledge of Polish law and military structure.

The Polish General Command legal team with General Mika: From L to R, Colonel Jacek Dzioba, GEN (Ret.) Jaroslaw Mika, LTC Robert N. Michaels, and Lt.Col. Malgorzata Starzomska. (Photo courtesy of authors)

What is the main focus of your respective roles?

Dr. Ganschow: The CLAMO mission is to support legal advisors to military operations by training and educating; collecting and sharing lessons learned; publishing legal resources; and facilitating multinational legal interoperability. We want CLAMO to be the most responsive resource provider for operational legal professionals in both the classified and unclassified environments, disseminating the operational force’s current best practices and timely lessons learned, and serving as expert analysts of emerging legal issues.

I currently focus primarily on the international armed conflict in Ukraine. The Center for Law and Military Operations’ immediate approach is to build an online repository9 that contains important legal and political documents concerning the legal framework of that conflict, to prepare a legal interoperability fact-finding trip along the U.S. and NATO forces in eastern Europe, and to come up with respective legal fact sheets and media sources.

LTC Michaels:The current situation in Ukraine has dramatically changed GENCOM’s main focus and my role as an operational law attorney. With the surge of U.S. forces into Poland, I serve as the main point of contact between U.S. JAs and Polish legal advisors. My primary focus is to identify legal friction points between U.S. and Polish forces and to work with both sides to reduce that friction. I facilitate information exchange, brief incoming U.S. legal teams on applicable Polish law and military structure, and expedite the processing of U.S. authorities’ requests through the Polish system. I have also briefed GENCOM Commander, General Jaroslaw Mika, on technical agreements between the United States and Poland for various types of multinational operations. Many of these issues arise with very high visibility and short suspenses, requiring quick reaction time from the legal department.

How did you end up in this position?

Dr. Ganschow:From the beginning of my career, I developed a serious interest in operational law, stemming partly from my major field of study (international law) and my military experience as a military police officer (active Reserve). I was very lucky throughout my career to be assigned to positions that often included operational-law-related work, whether at the Division for Specialized Operations, the Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operations Command, or the Department for Strategy and Operations in the MoD or, most challenging and rewarding, during deployments abroad. It felt like an obvious choice to apply for the German exchange officer position at CLAMO; a forefront position when it comes to law and military operations, it offers a multitude of fascinating worldwide possibilities to apply and further develop expertise in operational law.

LTC Michaels:My father’s side of my family is of Polish descent. My family name is actually Michalski. My grandfather decided to make the name more American when my father was attending medical school. I grew up eating Polish food during holidays and listening to my grandparents speak Polish, although neither my sisters nor I ever learned the language as it is notoriously difficult. During a two-year assignment as the officer in charge of the Wiesbaden Legal Center in Germany, I took advantage of the opportunity to travel extensively around Poland to see the country and learn more about my heritage. My staff judge advocate (SJA) during my second year in Europe, Colonel (COL) Gail Curley, had a similar interest in Poland, and we exchanged travel tips and talked current events in Poland on numerous occasions.

My selection for this position could not have been more of a surprise. I returned home from a fourteen-month assignment as the BJA for the 210th Field Artillery Brigade at Camp Casey, Korea, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in late July 2020. I assumed my duties in the OTJAG Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon in August after my two-week quarantine and—after three consecutive one-year assignments—fully expected to serve two years in OTJAG. In November 2020, COL Curley, then-Chief of the OTJAG National Security Law Department, called and said she intended to nominate me to participate in the Polish Legal Exchange Program, a high-priority initiative of OTJAG at the time. While I did not want to move again so quickly, the position itself was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and my Family was extremely supportive.

Within a week, TJAG approved my nomination. By February 2021, I pinned lieutenant colonel and was enrolled full-time in a six-month Polish language class through the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center–Washington. I arrived in Warsaw in late August 2021.

My main qualification for this position was my fairly extensive knowledge of Polish history and current events. I have some of that because of my heritage, but much of it comes from my travels to Poland and my self-study of the Polish culture. The best advice I can give to anyone interested in a position like this is to study the country’s history and culture. That knowledge has allowed me to connect with my Polish colleagues despite the language barrier and to understand their perspective on world events.

A general piece of career advice is to always be openminded when the phone call you are not expecting comes. Despite my initial impulse to avoid another OCONUS move, I listened and sought the wisdom of my friends and mentors who knew what an amazing opportunity this would be, and they were most certainly correct.

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Lt.Gen. Wieslaw Kukula, General Commander of the Polish Armed Forces, awards LTC Robert N. Michaels with the Silver Polish Army Medal. (Photo courtesy of authors)

How do you see your current exchange officer assignment impacting your armed forces legal services and your career path?

Dr. Ganschow: The two-year experience at CLAMO optimizes professional skills, knowledge, and personal development. It provides participating partner nations with a specially qualified collaborator who is willing and particularly capable of applying operational law across their military operations. Unlike daily work at the operational or tactical level, CLAMO allows exchange officers to widen their aperture and approach a field of law not just from their nation’s perspective but also from the broader Anglo-American legal perspective in a dogmatic and structural way. This allows practitioners to explore and utilize new legal tools, structures, and fields. And, in turn, this is the prerequisite for being able to offer superiors even better mission-enabling and legal-firewall solutions.

Of course, there is no guarantee of this, but in principle, working for two years with CLAMO should indeed result in an expansive increase in competence, which can enable German exchange officers to regularly exceed their performance expectations. This is a benefit for the legal service as an institution. There is simply no substitute for working with legal professionals from different nations to really gain a shared understanding on all matters, including legal ones. This is how we can achieve multinational legal interoperability.

I don’t want to get philosophical, but my two years as an exchange officer have been the perfect time to live the much-cited inscription on the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, Greece: “Know Thyself!”10 Indeed, I feel that the spatial distance from your own institution invites professional reflection, and being embedded in another organization forces you to review your own points of view.

LTC Michaels:The U.S. military’s footprint in Poland has expanded exponentially not just over the last several months but the last several years. The current situation in Ukraine and the surge of U.S. forces into Poland has demonstrated the extraordinary value of the established relationships between both the Polish military legal community and the U.S. military legal community that have come from the exchange program.

The Polish military is also engaged in a push to expand the exchange program overall. Upon my departure, the deputy commanding general of GENCOM expressed that Poland sees great value in this program. I attribute this success to Poland’s strong desire to build on what is already an exceptionally close military relationship.

From a personal perspective, this has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. My great-grandfather fled Poland over 100 years ago to escape the advancing Russian Army. To be here now as a member of the U.S. Army, serving with the Polish army, and playing a small role in helping Poland defend itself against Russian aggression is extraordinarily meaningful to me.

Upon completion of his tour as the first U.S. Army exchange officer to Poland, LTC Robert N. Michaels was awarded the Silver Polish Army Medal and a certificate from the Chief of the General Command Legal Division. (Photo courtesy of authors)

What are the highlights of your exchange officer assignment so far?

Dr. Ganschow:Special highlights for me include participating in major NATO and U.S. Army exercises (STEADFAST JUPITER 21 in Norway, ALLIED SPIRIT 22 in Germany, RIM OF THE PACIFIC 22 in Hawaii, and BALTIC GAVEL with the U.S. Marines in Norfolk) as an augmentee and observer as well as teaching at TJAGLCS. In my opinion, this testifies to the trust that the U.S. Army has placed in me. This is both an honor and a privilege.

LTC Michaels:Obviously, nobody predicted a large-scale ground war in neighboring Ukraine to break out when I was assigned to this newly created position. But, it has greatly changed my daily duties while simultaneously emphasizing how important and valuable this exchange is for both the United States and Poland. As Russian forces massed on the Ukrainian border, the legal issues we faced evolved into more complex and urgent matters.

For example, on one particular morning a week before the Russian invasion, we were tasked with researching the legal framework for lending military equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. I did some research on the Lend-Lease Act of 194111 and briefed my Polish colleagues on the general principles. One day later, we had a draft of the international agreement for review and the President of Poland signed it shortly thereafter. I considered myself extremely fortunate to be in this particular place at this particular moment in history.

As I left Poland in June, I was awarded the Silver Polish Army Medal by the new GENCOM Commanding General, Lieutenant General Kukula. It was humbling, not only to be recognized by our partners but also to symbolize as a recipient, in a small but particular way, a greater alliance between two beloved nations. It was truly one of the most significant honors of my military career and a memory I will cherish.

Do you have some preparatory book recommendations for officers interested in the exchange officer position?

Dr. Ganschow: To aid in the day-to-day work, I recommend interested individuals to quickly become acquainted with the Department of Defense Law of War Manual12 and TJAGLCS’s Operational Law Handbook13 as well as Gary D. Solis’s The Law of Armed Conflict – International Humanitarian Law in War;14 they are the workhorses of my daily work. Terry Gill and Dieter Fleck’s Handbook of the International Law of Military Operations15 has proven to be very helpful, as well as Fleck’s Handbook of the Law of Visiting Forces.16

For the experience outside of work, it is good to have Michaela Gaaserud’s Virginia17 travel guide with me, and I enjoyed preparing for the cultural experience here in the United States with Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen’s A Patriot’s History of the United States18 and Alfred and Adriana Mettler’s Crazy Country USA.19

LTC Michaels:I strongly recommend anyone interested in the Polish exchange officer position read as much about Polish military history as possible, with heavy emphasis on the last 120 years. It is impossible to understand modern-day Poland without understanding that history. Poland’s roles in World War I and World War II are largely misunderstood by most Westerners. Their experiences in those wars greatly influence how they currently view the world.

Many of my conversations with my Polish counterparts about current events involve references to Poland’s experiences during these wars and their subsequent time under communism. Given that Poland lost twenty percent of its population during World War II alone, most of the people I work with have their own tragic personal connection to that time. That period, along with the subsequent communist oppression, influences their current government, their current laws, and how they react to events such as the invasion of Ukraine. It is essential that anyone interested in this position have a working knowledge of that history.

LTC Robert N. Michaels and GEN (Ret.) Jaroslaw Mika at GEN Mika’s retirement reception in Warsaw. GEN Mika was a staunch supporter of interoperability initiatives with the U.S. military and was critical to establishing LTC Michaels’ position in his headquarters. GEN Mika also directed the full integration of the U.S. Army MPEP into discussions within the Polish government regarding Poland’s military assistance mission to Ukraine and the applicability of international law. (Photo courtesy of authors)

I recommend No Greater Ally20 by Kenneth K. Koskodan, The Eagle Unbowed21 by Halik Kochanski, and A Pope and a President22 by Paul Kengor. I read all three books before I came to Warsaw, and each one provided invaluable insight into Poland’s 100-year struggle for independence and self-governance. TAL

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Dr. Ganschow is a Legal Advisor with the German Armed Forces Legal Service. He previously served as the Action Officer for Multinational Operations and Interoperability with the Center for Law and Military Operations at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia.

LTC Michaels is the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate of the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He previously served as the Legal Advisor/Military Personnel Exchange Program Officer for the General Command of the Armed Forces in Warsaw, Poland.

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Notes

1. The overarching structure to facilitate the exchanges is the Defense Personnel Exchange Program (DPEP). This is a program authorized by reference where military and Civilian personnel of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the defense ministries/departments and/or armed services of foreign governments occupy positions with and perform functions for a host organization to promote current or future international programs, greater mutual understanding, and interoperability with allies and coalition partners. The DPEP is composed of the Military Personnel Exchange Program (MPEP) and the Administrative and Professional Personnel Exchange Program (APEP).

Recognizing the importance of interoperability with U.S. allies, the U.S. Army has fully embraced the MPEP. Under the MPEP, foreign exchange personnel are assigned to U.S. Army positions. Memoranda of agreement between the United States and the foreign partner create the exchanges. They are enforceable international agreements and may be reciprocal or non-reciprocal. Unlike foreign liaison officers who perform duties on behalf of their home nation, foreign exchange personnel are assigned to positions within authorized U.S. Army manpower requirements and are given the same authority and supervisory responsibilities that would be given U.S. personnel in the same unit in a similar position. U.S. Dep’t of Army, Reg. 614-10, Army Military Personnel Exchange Program with Military Services of Other Nations para. 4-5 (14 July 2011). Section 311 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code authorizes the Secretary of Defense to enter exchange programs with an ally or other friendly foreign nation. See 10 U.S.C. § 311. Exchange personnel must comply with their own domestic law. Thus, an exchange officer’s government may place conditions on, or prohibit, involvement in certain operations if its domestic law or policy is more restrictive than that of the host unit. See National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, Pub. L. No. 114-328, § 1242, 130 Stat. 2000, 2512 (2016).

In addition, the Legal Interoperability Exchange Program (LIEP) consists of informal, ad hoc, and shorter-duration exchanges during exercises.

2. See Nat’l Sec. L. Dep’t, The Judge Advoc. Gen.’s Legal Ctr. & Sch., U.S. Army, Operational Law Handbook 521 (2022). The Army Strategy 2018 defines interoperability as “the ability to routinely act together coherently, effectively and efficiently to achieve tactical, operational, and strategic objectives.” U.S. Dep’t of Army, The Army Strategy 10 (2018).

3. In March 2000, the U.S. DoD and the Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany agreed to bilaterally establish the APEP. Under this program, the United States and Germany reciprocally provide on-site working assignments to selected career administrative and professional personnel from the other party. By performing duties under the direction of a host supervisor, the assignments provide experience and knowledge of the organization and the management of defense activities.

Under this agreement, a German exchange officer is assigned to the multinational operations and interoperability action officer position at the Center for Law and Military Operations for one to two years. Participation in this program is, according to the underlying memorandum of understanding, on a highly selective basis from among U.S. and German military and civilian personnel.

4. “Senior Civil Servant.”

5. See Jan Ganschow, NATO Exercise STEADFAST JUPITER 2021–No Legal Comfort Zone: Deterrence Operations Below the Threshold of Article 5 of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, Nat’l Sec. L.Q., Feb. 2022 (CAC Required).

6. See Jan Ganschow, Jason Young, & Joel Deland, ALLIED SPIRIT 22 Exercise Report: LOAC at the Tip of the Spear, Nat’l Sec. L.Q., Feb. 2022 (CAC Required).

7. A Few Good Men (Castle Rock Ent. 1992).

8. JAG (NBC, CBS broadcast 1995–2005).

9. See CLAMO’s Intelink Repository, CLAMO, https://intelshare.intelink.gov/sites/clamo/_layouts/15/start.aspx#/SitePages/Home.aspx (last visited Aug. 7, 2023) (CAC required).

10. See Kenneth Best, Know Thyself: The Philosophy of Self-Knowledge, UConn Today (Aug. 7, 2018), https://today.uconn.edu/2018/08/know-thyself-philosophy-self-knowledge/#.

11. Lend-Lease Act of 1941, Pub. L. No. 77-11, 55 Stat. 31.

12. U.S. Dep’t of Def., Department of Defense Law of War Manual (12 June 2015) (C1, 31 July 2023).

13. See Nat’l Sec. L. Dep’t., supra note 2.

14. Gary D. Solis, The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War (2006).

15. The Handbook of the International Law of Military Operations (Terry D. Gill & Dieter Fleck eds., 2016).

16. Handbook of the Law of Visiting Forces (Dieter Fleck ed., 2018).

17. Michaela Riva Gaaserud, Virginia (2020).

18. Larry Schweikart & Michael Allen, A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Discovery to the War on Terror (2004).

19. Alfred Mettler & Adriana Mettler, Crazy Country USA (2020).

20. Kenneth K. Koskodan, No Greater Ally: The Untold Story of Poland’s Forces in World War II (2009).

21. Halik Kochanski, The Eagle Unbowed (2012).

22. Paul Kengor, A Pope and a President (2017).