Another nice email
Sunday, April 1, 2007 at 12:10PM Got this nice email from a participant at the recent Security Cooperation conference that I keynoted at Central Command. Very gratifying feedback to receive.
We concluded our conference this afternoon after a long week of numerous late nights. We developed country specific security cooperation plans which support our overall theater security cooperation strategy. I have been to two previous SC conferences and this was by far the most productive. What I found fascinating about this conference was how often your brief was cited. I talked to people and observed other briefings from the SAOs, the Military Departments, DOS, and USAID among others. Many of them referenced the Gap, the SysAdmin, and the DOEE just to name a few.
Your briefing helped establish a common vocabulary among the participants and I believe it provided a framework and a focus as we worked toward a truly synchronized strategy for building partner capacity throughout the theater. As you know, building partner capacity is the latest term for assisting countries, primarily in the Gap, with developing the ability to secure all of their sovereign territory and prevent the rise of violent extremists within their borders. Building partner capacity is equivalent to your concept of exporting security. We have operationalized the concept since the publication of the last QDR which coined the term. However, this is the first time I have participated in an event where building partner capacity was discussed within the context of "everything else". In our working groups we differentiated between countries with too much government and those with too little. We talked about the need to establish security as a precursor to attracting foreign investment and using CA and HA programs to improve basic services in order to improve quality of life and mitigate the factors which give rise to violent extremists. Of course, none of these are new concepts for us. What was new was that the discussions took place with a view toward "shrinking the Gap." You gave us what every good military planner needs: an End State.
In addition, at previous conferences, agencies like USAID, DTRA, and the
Surgeon's Office all briefed in plenary sessions, but few stayed for the working groups where SC activities are programmed. This year, all were there throughout due to the common belief that we must look beyond traditional security cooperation activities like exercises, FMS, JCETs, and IMET. These new players broadened the scope of SC and brought us closer to a comprehensive approach to building partner capacity. Your brief helped open all of our eyes to the possibilities these players represent.Once again, I would personally like to thank you for taking the time to speak to us. I honestly believe that your participation set the tone for the whole conference and brought us one step closer to "a future worth creating."
