Robert R. Greene Sands is currently a consultant supporting the development of a Language and Culture program for Defense Intelligence Agency. From 2008 to 2011, Sands was Culture Chair then Chair of the Cross-Cultural Competence Department and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC) and Air University at Maxwell AFB.

Tom Haines is the Senior Language Authority for the Defense Intelligence Agency; he leads and directs the Agency's language, regional expertise and culture programs. Mr. Haines is a former Foreign Area Officer (Russia/Eurasia) having served in Bosnia-Herzegovina as liaison officer to the Russian Brigade during Implementation Force (IFOR), the Joint Commission Support Directorate -Moscow, and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn, USA, is Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and Commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance.

Lieutenant Commander James Sisco, USN, is an Intelligence Officer currently serving in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Dr. David C. Ellis joined U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) in 2009 as a Human Terrain Analyst and is the lead for USSOCOM's Socio-Cultural Awareness Section

Major Fernando M. Luján is a visiting Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He is an Army Special Forces officer and foreign area specialist currently participating in the Pentagon's Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands program. This article is adapted from his new report, Light Footprints: The Future of American Military Intervention.