Blog Posts tagged with "Office of Defense cooperation"

The Quadriga atop the Brandenburg Gate, the French Embassy, the transparent cupola of the Reichstag building, Tiergarten Park, the German Chancellery, the renowned hotel Adlon, the home of the 19th century German painter Max Liebermann. These are the exquisite sites that one views from the roof of the US Embassy to the Federal Republic of Germany, on Pariser Platz in Berlin. This is a unique view, one afforded to only a select few by virtue of access to and through the embassy.

Members of the US EUCOM J9 Interagency team atop the US Embassy, Berlin

Our team was comprised of Department of State, Department of Justice and Department of Energy representatives to the command, as well as two active duty Air Force officers, a strategic infrastructure expert, and the Deputy Director of the Directorate, me. Our visiting interagency team was a representative slice of a Directorate which is a unique blending of 10 federal agency partners, together with Department of Defense civilians, military members and contractors. Together we comprise the command’s “interagency team”.

The team that hosted us in Berlin (and which enjoys this impressive view every day!) is also known as the US Country Team. Indeed we were treated to a “Country Team meeting” chaired by the Deputy Chief of Mission, the senior Department of State representative at the embassy. He was joined by a sampling of agency partners hosted at the embassy, from the FBI, to the Department of Homeland Security, to the Department of Commerce, to the Defense Department (DOD).

Our two interagency teams met and we soon discovered that we had many similarities between us. I have a bit of perspective in this regard, for while I now serve on the interagency team of the US military command in Stuttgart, previously I served at the US Embassy in Denmark and at the US Embassy in Germany…when it was located at its “temporary” home along the Rhine River in Bonn.

Despite similarities, there were also evident differences. In Stuttgart, the DOD partner greatly outnumbers other hosted agency partners; with some 800 DOD personnel matched against about 30 other agency personnel. At the US Embassy, the Department of State outnumbers all others, but the disparities are much smaller. Stuttgart’s command is led by a 4-star Admiral, while Berlin’s Country Team is lead by an Ambassador. Both organizations exercise wide control from Berlin and Stuttgart respectively, with the embassy bi-nationally focused and representing US interests throughout all of Germany, with subordinate consulates in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Leipzig. While the military command has a regional focus and an “area of responsibility” of all Europe, Israel and parts of Eurasia.

Members of EUCOM’s Interagency Team; (L to R) Mike Anderson, Gary Bullard, Lt Col Patti Egleston, Jared Irish, Matt Cline, and Cathy Blank

Both organizations conduct once weekly “Country Team” meetings. The embassy’s is led by the Ambassador while the military command’s meeting (called the “Senior Decision Cell”) is co-led by the command’s two deputies; a 3-star general and a former Ambassador serving as the Civilian Deputy.

Most importantly, each organization sees the value in the active participation and hosting of other federal agency partners. Each embodies a “whole of government” philosophy fully cognizant that America’s interests abroad are best served not just by traditional executive Departments operating abroad; the Departments of State and Defense, but instead by all members of “America’s Country Team”.

Mike Anderson
Acting Director
 J9 Interagency Partnering Directorate