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Announcing the latest ISG Heron – a quarterly newsletter highlighting our work in Security Cooperation and Institutional Capacity Building as well as the people who contribute to this important mission.

In this issue, ISG:

• Spotlights a successful senior leader delegation visit to ISG & DRMI.

• Welcomes seven new outstanding Regional Advising and Functional Experts.

• Profiles the expansion of security governance in Sri Lanka.

• Explores the pivotal role of the U.S.-Philippines Bilateral Strategic Dialog in regional security.

• Offers a standing ovation to Africa Regional Program Lead, Dr. Whitney Grespin.

• Interviews Director Ian Wexler on his dual engagements in the Philippines.

Congratulations to the latest cohort of participants of the National Resilience for Defense & Security course. This course aims to equip participants with knowledge and skills to develop national resilience frameworks that can improve national and collective security in the face of complex threats and hazards, including large scale disasters, domestic crises, and irregular or hybrid warfare.

The course emphasized planning considerations and capabilities requirements for countering full-spectrum threats and hazards that target the civil population and critical infrastructure and services. It explored government coordination with the civil and private sectors, reflecting the interconnected and interdependent nature of defense and security requirements.

ISG’s Peacekeeping and Exercises (PKX) Team recently concluded its support to Exercise Shanti Prayas IV – a Multinational Peacekeeping Exercise co-hosted by the Nepali Army and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command at the Birendra Peace Operations Training Centre (BPOTC) in Panchkhal, Nepal from February 20 – March 4, 2024.

This exercise, hosted rotationally between regional US partners, is the largest annual Peacekeeping exercise in the world annual exercises and designed to support peacekeeping operations. Participants included combined service members from 19 countries as well as a series of high-ranking dignitaries.

In partnership with United States European Command (USEUCOM) and the Government of Bulgaria, ISG recently convened a workshop in Sofia to fortify Bulgaria's public-private partnerships (PPPs) in support of national resilience. The collaborative event – hosted by the NATO Crisis Management and Disaster Response (CMDR) Center of Excellence (COE) – gathered key stakeholders from Bulgarian national ministries and institutions as well as international partners to engage in strategic planning and Institutional Capacity Building (ICB).  

Institutional Capacity Building (ICB) is an art more than a science. From a definitional standpoint, it encompasses Security Cooperation activities that directly support partner nation efforts to improve security sector governance and core management competencies needed to achieve shared security objectives.

From a practical standpoint, it involves a myriad of soft skills combined with a deep knowledge base to arrive at a strategically driven, problem focused, partner centric plan to build partner capacity responsibly and sustainably.

Some of those soft skills may include relationship and trust building; agility and adaptive thinking; patience and pacing; active listening; strong verbal communications and an ability to adapt to non-native English communication; awareness of non-verbal and culture-specific cues; and iterative thinking beyond best practices (nimble tailoring).

The Institute for Security Governance – in cooperation with U.S. Embassy Panama – led its fifth strategic planning workshop with Panama’s Ministry of Public Security (MINSEG). A 40-person partner working group comprised of members from each of MINSEG’s four service-like operational organizations (estamentos) briefed the Minister of Public Security and the Directors General of the partner security services on progress in developing the first-ever MINSEG-level Joint Operating Concept. A new Panamanian Joint Operating Concept would provide a common approach to conducting operations across various domains (land, sea, air, etc.) and among different military services.