DSCA’s Institutional Programs

Defense Institution Building and Humanitarian Assistance – DSCA’s Institutional Programs

By Jan Tegler - September 15, 2014

Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, addresses the Fellows of Advanced Security Cooperation (ASC) attending the ASC course at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, Hawaii, April 16, 2014. The course was designed to advance knowledge, skills, and networks related to multilateral security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region among mid-career security practitioners. Photo courtesy of APCSS

Each regional center also has an outreach or alumni section which works to maintain contact with participants long after they’ve taken part in specific programs or seminars. The idea is to leverage alumni as a mechanism to influence military organizations, governments, academics, key civil society actors, representatives of international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private sector entities important to U.S. government and DoD goals and objectives in the region.

Warsaw Initiative Funds (WIF)

The WIF program provides support to developing Partnership for Peace (PfP) partner nations through exchanges, exercises and activities designed to support three overarching goals. These goals are derived from stated NATO objectives for the PfP, to include the latest NATO Strategic Concept and policy guidance.

Currently, the fund supports 14 developing countries participating in the program with a variety of objectives, including:

Defense Institutions: Partner nations have effective and efficient defense institutions that reflect the Euro-Atlantic model.
Interoperable-deployable Forces: Partner nations have capable, ready forces, a portion of which can operate with U.S. and NATO forces and can be deployed to support allied coalition and or international operations.
Integration and Military Cooperation with the Euro-Alantic Community: Partner nations provide access to, maintain cooperative military relations with and as appropriate, integrate with the Euro-Atlantic community.

Like the other DIB programs discussed here, DSCA administers the PfP effort. The DASD for Security Cooperation provides program guidance and policy, while the Center for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR) coordinates the programming of DIB events. DSCA provides oversight for the effort, including fiscal management of WIF funding.

“WIF is aimed at prospective NATO partners or countries wanting to become or selected to become interoperable with NATO,” said Alden Sanborn, the program manager for WIF and the Defense Institution Reform Initiative.

“Many of our partners are interested in expanding their interoperability with the U.S. In EUCOM in particular there are partners that desire integration with NATO. WIF works with the GCCs in putting plans together to support interoperability through individual lines of activity.”

One “line of activity” funded by WIF is the DEEP program. This effort provides defense education reform in several partner countries finding opportunities for defense reform in countries beyond the PfP nations.

“The advantage of Defense Education Enhancement Program and the other Defense Institution Building programs is that they’re unobtrusive,” Sanborn said. “They engage MoDs [Ministries of Defense] with ministerial-level capability building programs. With these engagements we look for changes to occur not over a year or two, but over time. We see that happening and we’re not spending significant amounts of funding for the benefits we get out of it.”

Defense Institutional Reform Initiative (DIRI)

The purpose of the DIRI is much the same as that of the PfP. Like the other DIB programs, DIRI emphasizes “ministry-to-ministry” engagement with the goal of developing “effective, accountable, professional, and transparent partner defense establishments in partner countries that can manage, sustain, and employ national forces.”

Under DIRI, subject matter experts (SME) work with partner nations to assess organizational weaknesses and to establish roadmaps for addressing the shortfalls. The DASD for Security Cooperation works with the GCCs and the Regional Assistant Secretaries of Defense to identify and vet candidates for assistance.

… If you can integrate with a ministry properly before equipment is delivered to them you can make sure a country is ready to accept and be responsible for the equipment.”

Alden Sanborn serves as DSCA’s manager for DIRI as well as WIF, and refers to DIRI as a “top down” program. Less restricted in terms of geography, DIRI has a presence in South America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Europe. Efforts, including logistics improvement and strategic defense reviews, are orchestrated by two to three-person DIRI teams on a quarterly basis to develop “lines of action” allowing a particular country to address such issues.