Blog Posts tagged with "National Guard"
The 21st Century Force Multiplier: Public-Private Collaboration
In today’s budget-strapped environment, President Obama’s administration has called for more public-private collaboration. Recently the President appointed a Principal Director for Community Partnership to the National Security Council staff to address how the government might partner more with outside entities and individuals.
The Department of Defense and most other U.S. government agencies are also looking for ways to improve effectiveness and efficiencies by reaching out to collaborate with private businesses, non-profit organizations and academia. EUCOM has already been working on initiatives like this for some time in areas such as cyber-security, communications, and humanitarian assistance, among others. For the most part, this collaboration is focused on sharing expertise, exchanging information, and executing projects and operations.
This collaboration is especially beneficial to the government, as most of the cutting edge work, primarily technological, that once was done by the government is now being done in the private sector. The government now relies on private sector expertise to maintain its lead in defense, space and other national security issues.
Perhaps one of the most robust partnering initiatives EUCOM employs is the National Guard State Partnership Program (SPP) – where Guard personnel conduct some of the most enduring military-to-civilian – and even civilian-to-civilian – activities. The SPP was initially launched as a political and military outreach initiative to the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in the 1990s and is now a key security cooperation tool. National Guard members now work with EUCOM partner nations on such issues as military justice, disaster response planning, military medical preparedness, search and rescue techniques, border and port security, counter trafficking and counter terrorism among others.
Non-state actors, terrorists, media magnates, cyber hackers, and other nefarious characters can function today with fewer constraints than ever, so the government is going to be continually challenged to protect national security and its citizens. We here at EUCOM recognize the need to harness the know-how and resources of corporations, universities, research institutions, and charitable and development organizations. We continue to seek out opportunities for public-private cooperation initiatives because today’s problems will not be solved by government alone, but in increasingly in partnership with global business, partnerships with civil society.
Evelyn N. Farkas, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor for Public-Private Partnership
to the Supreme Allied Commander (SACEUR) and Commander, U.S. European Command
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Want to read more on this topic? See the related article penned by Admiral Stavridis and Dr. Farkas or the recent blog by Admiral Stavridis.
Find more blog posts tagged with:
Stories to tell – A visit to Serbia
I have a story to tell of my visits to several U.S. European Command humanitarian assistance projects in the Republic of Serbia.
Find more blog posts tagged with:
SPP wraps up with focus on Bilateral Affairs Officers
I can’t tell you how pleased I am with the success of our 2009 State Partnership Program Conference. I heard nothing but great feedback about the conference from General McKinley and the Adjutants General who attended. While we have lots of work to do on the conference deliverables, I tip my hat to everyone who made the conference a success. It truly exceeded expectations.
Find more blog posts tagged with:
State Partnership Program Conference – Forging Ahead
We got off to a great start at the 2009 EUCOM State Partnership Program Conference. National Guard Bureau Chief, General McKinley, set the stage with his opening remarks about how SPP has matured over the past 15 years, but noted that we need to be "on a vector to make it better." That charge from the Chief opened the floor for some lively, honest and thought-provoking debate about how we at EUCOM, along with our 20 SPP TAGs (Adjutant Generals), and our Component Commands, can communicate and work better to improve the program. A take away for me and my staff is to find ways to bridge the communication gap between our TAGs and our Component Commands -- USAFE (United States Air Forces Europe) and USAREUR (United States Army Europe). The State Partnership Program is a tool of the EUCOM Commander's Theater Security Cooperation plan. It can and should be a multiplier for the component commands as well. We haven't done a great job making that happen. We're going to fix that.
Find more blog posts tagged with:
Illinois TAG (MG William Enyart) - Serving
Cold, rainy March, near midnight. Hanging out the window of a Warsaw hotel, not many months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, photographing the grim, gray hulk of the Soviet Embassy, thinking "Wow, I can't believe I'm doing this! A few months ago I would have been shot for this."
Find more blog posts tagged with:
EUCOM conference highlights National Guard State Partnership Program
For our followers who are not familiar with the State Partnership Program, it’s simply about building and nurturing relationships so we can enhance the military, civil authority and security capabilities of our 21 partner countries in Europe and Eurasia. From its groundbreaking start in 1993 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this program has evolved into one of the premier tools of the U.S. government to bridge divides and help our partner countries train and build their military and civil security capabilities. SPP has been the U.S. government’s most economic capability-building tools for our partner countries. Through the powerful relationships between states and partners, everyone works together to develop military and security capabilities that can be fully employed locally, regionally and by NATO. In many cases, these relationships are so strong, the National Guard states and their partner countries form teams and deploy together to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Comments: 0