By Jonathan Movroydis
Lt. Col. Eldridge “Raj” Singleton, representing the US Army, is a National Security Affairs Fellow (NSAF) for the academic year 2020–21 at the Hoover Institution.
In this interview, Singleton talks about his career in the US Army, specifically his work as a foreign area officer (FAO) in Latin America and the Caribbean, and his combat experience as a special forces officer in Iraq. To prepare for his expected next assignment as military attaché at the US embassy in the Philippines, Singleton is focusing his research on how competition between the United States and China is impacting the geopolitics of the South China Sea.
Why did you decide to join the US Army?
Since I was in elementary school, I always wanted to serve. I grew up watching shows like Tour of Duty and got hooked. It wasn’t until much later that I realized that I had family who served in the army during the Vietnam War.
Will you tell us about your educational background?
I really liked structured education in my younger years. I was a senior at a Catholic high school when I decided to attend the US Military Academy at West Point. After graduation, I spent a year at the West Point Prep School to get used to military life and improve my writing skills. At West Point, I earned a bachelor of science in Spanish and German. The science came from my computer science core courses. To me, the value of attending West Point was the regimen, its academic rigor, the physical fitness requirements, and the day-to-day military duties. I was a manager for the army football team, which taught me a lot about training and logistics—skills that have served me well throughout my career. The other unique feature about West Point was its honor code system, and the impact it had on my life then and how it still underpins my ethical decision making today. Overall, a cadet’s conduct is heavily scrutinized, but that level of attention to details gave me a comprehensive and positive educational experience, one that fundamentally refined me into the person I am.
Later, I earned a master of arts degree in Latin American studies from San Diego State University, where I became familiar with a wide breadth of subjects, including anthropology, history, and linguistics. I also earned an associate of arts degree from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, to develop fluency in Portuguese. Both were great experiences but not as impactful as the US Military Academy.
Why Portuguese?
Portuguese language helped broaden my expertise as a foreign area officer in Latin America since I already had a foundation in Spanish language, culture, and history. Since Brazil was the largest country in South America, I thought that I should study Portuguese just in case I was assigned to Brazil. The army never assigned me there, but nevertheless my Portuguese proved to be useful, because I was constantly running into Brazilian military officers and diplomats during my career in Latin America and the Caribbean. I worked with Brazilians in Haiti, where I served as a security cooperation officer. I also found them very influential in Bolivia, where I served in the US embassy as the army attaché. So, I had the opportunity to use Portuguese almost every year since I received formal language training.
Will you tell us about the nature your work as a foreign affairs officer (FAO) in Belize, Bolivia, and Jamaica?
I’ll do my best to distill twelve amazing years into a couple brief points. The two big policy issues I worked on were counternarcotics and migration. The US military is focused on counternarcotics operations because of the corrosive impact drugs have on the people of the United States. Migration is also a major issue, not only for its impact on the American economy but also due to the negative effects it has on the countries that are losing skilled people to the United States. The drain of talent, labor force, and youth can worsen these countries’ economies, upset their political systems, and reduce regional stability.
In general, the duties of a FAO are split into three separate categories: operational and institutional, embassy, and political-military. I’ve done two of the three. I started out working in embassies doing security cooperation in Haiti, a job that entailed organizing training events, sending personnel to participate in various educational activities, and working on humanitarian assistance missions. My second embassy job took me to the attaché side of the house, which focused on keeping open lines of communication between foreign military counterparts in the host country and senior US military leaders. You can imagine that with 195 different countries around the world, neither the secretary of defense nor the service secretaries can give them all the attention they would probably like. When events develop to a point where the attachés feel the military-to-military relationship would significantly benefit the US government, or when an executive branch decision needs to be made, then it’s our job to work through our US senior defense official or defense attaché at the embassy—which is the third embassy job I held as a FAO—to get that information up the chain of command to the Pentagon. In all instances, my job was to constantly work with security partners, nongovernmental organizations, and international institutions to support the US ambassador or chief of mission at the embassy.
For my operational and institutional job, I served as the FAO branch chief at US Army Human Resources Command, where I managed global assignments for more than 1,200 captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels. Honestly, I initially hoped that I would not be assigned to this sort of work but was ultimately happy that I had this experience. Now I have a better understanding of the significance of FAOs, not just how they support various embassies overseas but also the geographic combatant commands, the Pentagon, US Congress, and the White House. I was fortunate to have that job in the midst of the army talent management efforts led by another Hoover NSAF alumni, Brigadier General J. P. McGee. I was only there for a year, but the things I learned about the Army and our US government, writ large, were truly amazing.
Since I did not serve in a political-military job, I’ll draw on my knowledge as a former FAO human resources manager to explain that this job is the critical bridge between our FAOs at the embassies and our generals, admirals, and civilian secretaries. They monitor what goes on in multiple countries, distill that information down into executive-level white papers, and arm our leaders with the information they need to work with their foreign counterparts or to brief members of Congress and the White House staff. Without them, there would be a lot of missed opportunities to advance our US objectives.
Will you talk about your combat roles in Iraq?
My deployment with the 101st Airborne Division in 2003 for initial combat operations in Iraq was surreal and life changing. Moments like these are career defining for soldiers. A cadet spends years at the academy learning how to fight and win the nation’s wars, but I only had a few months between arriving to my first unit and the tragic events of 9/11 to prepare for that reality. We pushed our way through Najaf, Iraq, bypassed Baghdad, and made our final base of operations at an airfield call Qayyarah, just south of Mosul, before we redeployed in 2004.
My initial exposure to the realities of war made me realize that I wanted to do more to impact the Iraqi government and people, so I trained for two hard years to become a Green Beret. In the US Army Special Forces, soldiers develop and carry out the majority of missions on their own, so my team had more control over how we accomplished our overall mission. Much of my work involved counterinsurgency operations along the Iranian and Syrian borders. During my tours as a special forces officer, I forged relationships with tribal leaders, provincial officials, and military counterparts to strengthen security and peace at the village and provincial levels. It was personally rewarding, because I felt that I was able to help advance progress in that country following a violent insurgency. Plus, the experiences with cross-cultural relationship building really set me up for success as a FAO.
What are some of the valuable lessons that you’ve learned from working with partners of a host country for their benefit as well as to further the objective of advancing American interests?
I think the most important factor is to establish an understanding up front that you are peers, partners, and allies. It’s very hard to work effectively with another organization or entity in another country when there is an outward appearance or display of superiority and arrogance. It’s also critical to understand, especially in noncombat arenas, that a US military officer is a guest in another person’s home. For example, just because the Pentagon might authorize a specific mission, that doesn’t mean the host country will approve of it. Ultimately, we must respect their sovereignty. Once this mutual respect is established, it becomes much easier to have fruitful conversations or productive negotiations.
What is your research focus, and what do you hope to accomplish during this yearlong National Security Affairs Fellowship?
My next job in the army will likely be as the army attaché to the US embassy in the Philippines. This takes me out of my comfort zone and area of expertise in Latin America. So, my goal is to become smarter on the Indo-Pacific region, especially the geopolitics of the South China Sea. I have spent the majority of my time at Hoover researching US-China great power competition in the region and how that has impacted the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Japan.
I believe the best way to get smarter is to surround myself with smart people and pick their brains, familiarize myself with source documents, and gain a fundamental understanding of the issues in the region. I don’t know of a better place to accomplish this than the Hoover Institution.
Is there anybody from the fellowship that made you think differently about the issues that you’re studying?
For one, Professor Alice Miller has done just an amazing job of encapsulating the history of modern China and how it relates to the United States and the former imperial world. The other person who has been influential in my research is Dr. Amy Zegart. She’s really helped me better understand cyberwarfare and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and how they relate to the competition between the United States and China.
I will also say that I learned a lot from my counterparts in Hoover’s National Security Affairs Fellowship. Each of them brings unique perspectives from the other branches of the US armed forces, as well as the State Department. I have appreciated hearing their individual stories of success and adversity. Their perspectives, even at the personal level, have shaped the way I think about current events and how I engage in my research every day.
What does leadership mean to you?
Leadership isn’t necessarily just about giving orders and getting results. Leadership is about motivating and inspiring people toward a common cause that may not have originally been their own. The most effective leaders are able to build trust and strong relationships with their subordinates and get them to consistently perform tasks that support our broader mission, even when they don’t necessarily agree with it. This is especially true in persuading people to follow and give it their best during a difficult assignment. I call it the “Are you with me?” moment. For me, that’s leadership.
