State Partnership Program: Shaping the Environment for 21st Century Defense
Abstract
A decade of persistent conflict exacerbated by fiscal austerity has compelled the United States to reassess its national security priorities. Policy makers have concluded that fiscal responsibility does not have to come at the expense of a strong national defense. The latest defense strategic guidance directs the services to "develop innovative, low cost, and small footprint approaches to achieve security objectives, relying on exercises, rotational presence, and advisory capabilities." The Department of Defense (DoD) currently pursues this strategy by building partner capacity and capability through security cooperation programs like the National Guard's State Partnership Program (SPP). The SPP has been the National Guard's program of record for building partnerships for nearly two decades. However, since its inception, questions have persisted about the program's conformity with the law, measures of effectiveness, and its relationship to combatant commanders' priorities. While these concerns remain, they have recently begun to subside in response to the need for new global partnerships. Today, the SPP is leading efforts toward building partnership capacity in regions like Afghanistan, where the National Guard is providing training to the Afghan National Army (ANA) and serves as a liaison between the ANA and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). This paper will define the strategic role of SPP in building partner capacity; analyze SPP's goals and objectives in terms of their relationship to theater security cooperation; evaluate barriers to SPP implementation; and recommend ways to eliminate those barriers to fully achieve U.S. strategic objectives.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 09, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA560989
Entities
People
- Paul B. Chauncey Iii
Organizations
- United States Army War College