Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and Swedish Minister of Defense Bjorn von Sydow signed a memorandum of understanding at a Pentagon ceremony today concerning cooperation in the development of a Partnership for Peace Simulation Network.
The PfP Simulation Network will help to enhance the Partnership for Peace program by strengthening command and staff planning among both partners and allies. By conducting combined joint task force training on a distributed basis, it will improve interoperability by involving a wider training audience at less cost. Implemented through remote-site command posts that are multinationally staffed, the PfP Simulation Network will not only improve staff procedures, but it will also enhance the multinational cooperation that is essential to effective multinational operations like those ongoing in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
The PfP Simulation Network will be demonstrated during the Washington summit in April 1999 as one part of our vision to provide a foundation for PfP in the 21st Century. In order to develop fully PfP as an independent framework for European security, an end in itself, we have begun to examine new ways to help partners lead in creating a cooperative security network.
Sweden is at the forefront in developing computer simulations to support staff training in peace support operations. As a result, the United States and Sweden anticipate inviting other nations to join in further developing this collaborative endeavor after the Washington summit demonstration.
