Blog Posts tagged with "security"
Arctic Nations Meet to Discuss Communication, Maritime Domain Awareness Strategy
As the Arctic climate continues to change, Arctic area nations are working together to address security concerns. Recently I was honored to represent U.S. European Command at the Arctic Security Forces Roundtable (ASFR) in Bodo, Norway. The Roundtable was attend by 12 nations focused on improving communications and maritime domain awareness.
The twelve countries include: Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom and the U.S.
As the ice cover in the Arctic lessens, opportunities arise to promote a balanced approach to improving human safety and environmental security in the region through multilateral, collaborative relationships. In cooperation with our Arctic partners, USEUCOM will help develop new ideas for shared maritime domain awareness and communications.
What exactly is USEUCOM's role in the Arctic, you might wonder? Well, as a military organization, we stand ready to provide forces in support of safe, sustainable, cooperative use of the Arctic. For example, exercise NORTHERN EAGLE 2012 -- which just wrapped up a few days ago -- involved in-port and at-sea training. The exercise included communications, maritime interdiction operations, force protection, search and rescue, navigation and aviation operations, as well as ashore maritime command and control.
This is not a small commitment for any Arctic nation. The Arctic, an area of about 13 million square miles, is one of the last undiscovered regions left in the world. Though the ice melting in the Arctic sea lanes presents opportunity that can reduce travel times with new, shorter shipping routes, this change also poses unique challenges which Arctic nations must face. An increase in ship traffic means the potential for more search and rescue, pollution response and law enforcement.
As maritime traffic increases in the Arctic region, lack of adequate communication may pose a risk to the safety of maritime operations. Only 25 percent of the Arctic waters are actually mapped to modern hydrographic standards and there is no question that a shorter, more accessible shipping route will attract cargo, cruise and military vessels. These ships will have to cope with inadequate information about traversing dangerous waters. The opening of the Arctic presents opportunities to work collaboratively in multilateral forums to promote a balanced approach to improving human safety and environmental security in the region.
Maj. Gen. Mark Schissler, Director, Strategy and Policy, Headquarters USEUCOM, answers questions from Norwegian media at the Arctic Security Forces Roundtable in Bodo, Norway Aug. 29. Also pictured to the right of General Schissler is Vice Adm. Haakon Bruun-Hansen, Norwegian Joint Forces Commander. To the left is Maj. Gen. Tom Henry Knutsen, Director International Relations/Defence Staff Norway, Royal Norwegian Air Force.
At the ASFR, one of the key discussion points has been how to establish better coordination of current standard operating procedures across all Arctic security stakeholders. For example, further analysis of regional search and rescue could assist in base-lining basic communication needs across the region for safe maritime operations.
The Arctic is an area where Russia, the U.S. and other European nations can work together. The United States and USEUCOM view the Arctic as one of the main areas where we can foster closer cooperation with Russia, especially in search and rescue operations. Search and rescue is one of the most likely scenarios where shared national resources could support other sovereign nations leading a multinational effort.
I think in the past, coverage of the Arctic climate change has focused too much on the negative. In reality, nations are willing to collaborate and cooperate. The Arctic Council, Northern Chiefs of Defense meetings and ASFR are very visible examples of this cooperative spirit.
We at USEUCOM stand ready with our Arctic partners to support a safe, stable and secure Arctic region. While Arctic nations still have a long way to go in addressing communication and maritime domain awareness issues, the ASFR is a collective step in the right direction.
Maj. Gen. Mark O. Schissler
Director, Strategy and Policy
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An Active Autumn Ahead
As we wrap up high summer, it's a sensible time to look ahead at the fall and think about the big tasks facing the NATO Alliance and US European Command. The Olympics and the Jubilee fade to memory, and hopefully most folks have managed to break away for a short vacation to recharge. The autumn will be a busy time.
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Is it easier to train a cyber warrior to be a soldier or train a soldier to be a cyber warrior?
Some say it’s easier to train a cyber warrior (military specialists, law enforcement officials, computer forensics experts and civil engineers who defend national and economic security assets) to be a soldier while others say it’s easier to train a soldier to be a cyber warrior. So, which is it?
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The 21st Century Force Multiplier: Public-Private Collaboration
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.
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Risks, Opportunities, and Open Source Security
In the world of security, we are generally focused on "risk." We worry about the chances of war, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the likelihood of a ballistic missile attack, or the possibility of a biologic contagion. Understanding risk allows us to calculate how much we should spend on defense compared to what our potential opponents are spending.
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Connecting public and private efforts to create security in the 21st century
I'm thinking about how to connect public and private efforts to create security. In this turbulent 21st century, security is not about creating walls. We won't deliver a secure world strictly from the barrel of a gun.
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Happy Birthday, Lithuania!
Lithuania is a steadfast ally and friend of the United States. Also, US European Command is a bilateral partner with Lithuania’s new national Energy Security Center
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“Black Gold, Texas Tea”
Cooperation on Energy Security issues is in Lithuania’s and the United State’s common interests. The MOU outlines ways in which both organizations, EUCOM and the Energy Security Center, can continue to work and coordinate together.
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National Cyber Security Awareness Month: How are you protecting your cyber-identity?
This “two-factor” login significantly increases the level of protection used for that account and is also the system used when withdrawing money out of the bank. As we approach the end of October’s National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), I wanted to draw attention to a similar strategy that is available to help protect personal accounts from abuse.
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October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month
How will you help protect the networks that are used as a tool to assist warfighters, planners, and commanders by preserving freedom of action in Cyberspace?
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Balkan Ghosts
Libya and Afghanistan seem to get all the headlines about NATO these days. But lately, I've been thinking and working on the Balkans. We need to make sure that the Balkan ghosts of violence from the 1990s don't reappear.
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The Power of Partnering in the Baltics
In early March, we teamed up with Project Hope, a non-profit medical service organization, to work with us and our Baltic allies in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on some of the most relevant, important issues facing all of our forces.
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Advances in Afghanistan
Amidst all the attention, appropriately, to Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Japan, Yemen and other ongoing events around the world, there was an important and noteworthy development in Afghanistan yesterday.
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Cyber Defense is a Team Sport
The theme of this conference was “Empowering a Cyber Defense Workforce" and included over one hundred participants with 40 partner cyber defenders from 18 countries, NATO, and other international organizations. The cheer squad came from USEUCOM's components, DoD agencies and industry.
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Munich Security Conference Brings out the Stars
There is something of a red carpet, a press of media, crowds everywhere, the buzz of deal cutting and gossiping, all held in an elegant 18th century hotel in the heart of Bavaria.
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Why NATO Matters to the USA
Pretty surprising that a Supreme Allied Commander Europe – standing as I do in the footsteps of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, just 65 years after the end of WWII and after 60 years of the founding of the Alliance – would feel need to blog about “Why NATO Matters to the USA.”
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Continued Focus in Afghanistan
It’s been a busy couple of weeks since my last blog, including trips all over the NATO world. As regular followers of both US and NATO security interests, I’m sure you already know what a busy couple of weeks it has been.
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Off to Washington!
I’m on Capitol Hill next week to update Congress on the successes and challenges of U.S. European Command and the security environment in Europe. As you’d expect, this is a BIG deal for us, and we’ve been preparing for months.
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Exploring the "Cyber Sea"
They cyber world really caught my attention about a year ago when my daughter’s Facebook account was pirated and her identity used for a swindle. Ugh!
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A Global Force for Good
Just left historic Munich, Germany where I was fortunate to attend and speak at their annual Security Conference.
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Afghanistan: The London Conference
Yet, at the moment, I am thinking about a superb international event that happened last week: the International London Conference on Afghanistan. Last week, I wrote about my last trip to Afghanistan as we prepared for it. The media has thoroughly covered the conference (here’s a sample of recent coverage, based on an interview with me), and you can watch key presentations online, like this one from Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s review of the conference on his video blog. So rather than reiterating what's already been said, I thought I'd share with you some personal thoughts and impressions, and my interpretations of the atmospherics.
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The New Year with European Command and Our Partner Nations
Happy Twenty Ten from U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany!
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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.
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EUCOM Hosts NATO Conference
We had a superb turn-out at the EUCOM-hosted 2009 NATO Security Investment Program (NSIP) Conference held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen March 16 to 19. This event, held in cooperation with the NATO Strategic Allied Transformation Command, brought together over 170 representatives from 24 NATO nations, each of the NATO Headquarters and several of the NATO Agencies to discuss the status and future of this important Alliance program in transforming and sustaining NATO missions and operations.
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