How Defense Security Management College Supports the National Security Strategy of Engagement

DISAM Journal,  Fall, 2000  by Richard Kwatnoski

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

"Our strategy is founded on continued U.S. engagement and leadership abroad. The United States must lead abroad if we are to be secure at home."

A National Security Strategy for a New Century, The White House, December 1999.

What do Defense Security Management College's (DSMC) educational activities have to do with this?

In December 1999, the White House issued the latest version of A National Security Strategy for a New Century. The strategy stated that "International cooperation will be vital for building security in the next century because many of the challenges we face cannot be addressed by a single nation. ... durable relationships with allies and friendly nations are critical to our security." The strategy goes on to note the crucial role of the U.S. military in protecting and promoting U.S. interests, but that it is not a substitute for other forms of engagement. Other forms of engagement are diplomatic, economic, scientific, technological, cultural, and educational activities. DSMC's engagement activities consist mostly of educating those in the DoD acquisition workforce that will engage the allies as a part of their official activities, along with some educating of the allies directly.

How does DSMC support the policy of engagement?

Courses

Our primary educational engagement activity is our family of international acquisition courses. DSMC offers three one-week international courses, which are for the most part for those in the DoD acquisition workforce that will engage the allies directly.

* Multinational Program Management Course (PMT 202): The introduction to international cooperative acquisition programs, concentrating mostly on program management in the international environment.

* International Security and Technology Transfer/Control Course (PMT 203): As the course title conveys, this is about the transfer and control of information and technology in international projects.

Advanced International Management Workshop (PMT 304): This is a workshop in international project agreements, often referred to as Memoranda of Understanding or Agreement.

Seminars, Forums, Symposiums and Special Offerings

Secondary in importance only to our international acquisition courses are the various seminars, forums, symposiums, and special offerings that DSMC conducts regularly or occasionally. DSMC has formed strategic arrangements with Atlantic and Pacific partners. With Atlantic partners, we have been conducting an annual international acquisition/procurement seminar with defense acquisition educational institutions in the United Kingdom, Germany and France for twelve years on a rotational basis. The thirteenth Atlantic Seminar is scheduled for June 2001 in Berlin, Germany. In the Pacific we have a similar arrangement with defense institutions and Ministries in Australia, South Korea, Singapore and New Zealand. The third annual seminar was held in Singapore.

Another engagement activity in the Pacific Theater is the Defense Cooperation in Acquisition Course that we conduct biennially for Pacific Command in Singapore or Canberra, Australia. At DSMC we host a biannual International Acquisition Forum for Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and the services to present and exchange views on contemporary, and sometimes contentious, international acquisition topics. DSMC has hosted all eight of these forums since 1996, which are chaired by the OSD Director, International Cooperation.

Over the years DSMC has partnered with other organizations for some one-time engagement activities, such as the "European and Transatlantic Armaments Cooperation Symposium" in 1996 sponsored by the French, German, Italian and British Embassies, and endorsed by the Under Secretary of Defense Acquisition and Technology. Another example would be the U.S.-Japan Project Management Seminar conducted in 1998 at the request of the Director, Pacific Armaments Cooperation in the Office of the Director for International Cooperation. The University City Science Center, a consortium of educational institutions, and the Strategic Management Group, a private contractor, conducted the Seminar with educational oversight by DSMC international faculty.

Research

The Defense Security Management College has produced many research products to support international engagement activities, some of which are unique resources for the acquisition community. International studies were completed in the following areas:

* Comparative acquisition practices (Atlantic and Pacific).

* Cooperative acquisition projects--factors for success (Atlantic and Pacific).

* National cultures and practices in international projects

* Ethics in international projects

* International negotiation case study

* Role of Congress in international agreements

* Military Research Fellows studies

* Case studies of international projects (Rolling Airframe Missile and The Multifunctional Information Distribution System).

The Military Research Fellows have chosen an international topic three times over the years. The most recent report of the Military Research Fellows, Transatlantic Armaments Cooperation, was published in August 2000. DSMC has pursued research in comparative acquisition practices for nearly eight years. Recently DSMC published Comparison of the Defense Acquisition Systems of France, Great Britain, Germany and the United States, September 1999. A similar effort is underway with the Pacific nations of Australia, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. A separate, but similar effort was completed on the comparative Test and Evaluation Policy of the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Additional research publications include a three-volume U.S.-German comparison, Effects of a Scale-Down in Defense Budgets, as well as Standards and Trade in the 1990s, and Workforce Education Privatization The U.K. Experience.