National Guard State Partnership Program
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The National Guard's State Partnership Program (SPP) continues as one of EUCOM’s most effective security cooperation programs. By linking U.S. states with designated partner countries, it promotes access, enhances military capabilities, improves interoperability and enhances the principles of responsible governance. EUCOM’s SPP supports the commandant commander’s priorities and objectives to build enduring military-to-military (M2M) relationships. These sustained relationships enhance long-term international security while building partnership capacity.
EUCOM’s current-day SPP began in 1993 and evolved from the Joint Contact Team Program that was initially launched in Europe as a political and military outreach initiative for new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. SPP became a U.S. Department of Defense “program of record” in 2008 under the auspices of the National Guard Bureau.
This mission, accomplished through a bilateral relationship between a country and the National Guard of a state or territory, provides EUCOM with an integrated security cooperation tool. The mission spans military, political, economic and social realms; is characterized by personal and enduring relationships; features scalable cooperative activities via local, state and national conduits; and opens doors to the full depth and breadth of U.S. defense and interagency capabilities. All SPP activities must support the Theater Campaign Plan as well as individual U.S. ambassador mission plans in the countries where they operate.
SPP addresses critical areas, such as:
- emergency management and disaster response
- border and port security
- leadership and NCO development
- medical capacities
- economic security
- natural resource protection
- peacekeeping operations
- counter trafficking
- counter proliferation
- counter terrorism
Twenty-one states’ National Guard partner with 22 countries in EUCOM’s theater:
Alabama / Romania |
Indiana / Slovakia |
Maryland / Bosnia |
Ohio / Hungary |
California / Ukraine |
Iowa / Kosovo |
Michigan / Latvia |
Ohio / Serbia |
Colorado / Slovenia |
Kansas / Armenia |
Minnesota / Croatia |
Oklahoma / Azerbaijan |
Georgia / Georgia |
Maine / Montenegro |
New Jersey / Albania |
Pennsylvania / Lithuania |
Illinois / Poland |
Maryland / Estonia |
North Carolina / Moldova |
Tennessee / Bulgaria |
Texas & Nebraska / Czech Republic | Vermont / Macedonia |
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