EUCOM conference highlights National Guard State Partnership Program

SPP Fact Sheet
Welcome to the 2009 European Command State Partnership Program (SPP) Conference and thanks for following us as a virtual participant in what is sure to be an exciting week for us in Stuttgart. My staff and I at the EUCOM Reserve Affairs Directorate have put together a thought-provoking, forward-leaning agenda for our resident and virtual participants alike.

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.

One of the beauties of the State Partnership Program is its use of U.S. National Guard forces from various states. They are our primary relationship builders. These highly skilled Citizen Soldiers and Airmen leverage and share their military and civilian expertise with counterparts in their partner nations, resulting in synergistic cooperation at it’s best.

With our conference this week, we will propel our State Partnership Program agenda to new levels. This conference is truly a game changer event, not just for EUCOM, but, we think, for our sister combatant commands and their partner countries around the world. Our goal is to develop comprehensive concepts that will have applicability across the board.

The heart of the conference is six highly interactive workshops where we will develop playbooks that enable our National Guard state forces to better engage with their partner countries on military and civil authoritative levels. These playbooks will form the core of a new paradigm we call “Enhanced SPP,” something we think is critical for regional security and stabilization, as well as for partner-country security and stabilization.

“Enhanced SPP” incorporates valuable expertise of state-government agencies and the military expertise of state National Guards. We export this expertise to partner nations in a collaborative training environment with the ultimate goal being the self-sustainability of the partner nations’ government and military. For example, “Enhanced SPP” can bring world class port security expertise to help our partner nations develop sustainable programs that both improve security while effectively balancing commercial requirements. The same approach can be applied to emergency management, intelligence fusion, counter narcotics and a host of other areas where our state agencies have a wealth of expertise and our partner nations have a thirst for the capability.

On the military front, our goal is to continue to help our partners develop effective militaries that can be employed and deployed both in the region for security and stability and exported to other regions as required. Use of National Guard forces for this mission is the most cost effective approach for the U.S. government. “Enhanced SPP” will raise the engagement bar considerably. We will continue the time tested military-to-military “engagement model,” but at a higher level.

As I said earlier, relationships matter. The State Partnership Program at EUCOM is perhaps our best way to develop and nourish long standing, mutually beneficial relationships with our European allies and partner countries. During our conference, we will look as ways to make those relationships better and more robust through engagement strategies and strategic communication.

I invite you to enjoy EUCOM’s SPP Conference through this and other forums. Follow us on Twitter via #SPP and #EUCOM.

Brigadier General Jeffery Marshall, United States Army
Director, European Command Directorate of Mobilization and Reserve Affairs