News Posts - Defense Security Cooperation University

The Institute for Security Governance recently concluded a Maritime Domain Awareness course at the Philippines’ National Coast Watch Center in Manila for senior-level Navy, Coast Guard, and civilian officials. The course combined general instruction with interactive learning activities including a SWOT analysis and a table-top exercise.

ISG conducted the second iteration of the "Women, Leadership, and National Defense" course at ISG headquarters in Monterey, CA. The course was attended by 24 participants from 17 countries. Learning modules were delivered by a variety of academic, government, and non-governmental subject matter experts, and covered a range of topics from the effects of gendered domestic laws on women’s advancement, to gender and trafficking of persons. The course sets the stage for improved country-level women, peace, and security (WPS) related efforts in the participant countries.

Inter-agency stakeholders from across the Armenian government recently gathered to discuss findings from an all-hazards national-level Disaster Preparedness Capacity Assessment led by the Institute for Security Governance. This assessment and strategic dialogue came at a pivotal moment for Armenia. This effort was conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Kansas National Guard, and the U.S. Embassy of Armenia.

The Institute for Security Governance recently participated in the mid-year Joint Committee Meeting hosted by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Koror Palau. ISG engaged with the Palauan delegation regarding Institutional Capacity Building activities to complement the ongoing Defense Institute of International Legal Studies Maritime Security legal assistance effort.

The Institute for Security Governance recently traveled to Niamey, Niger to work alongside the Niger Armed Forces, the US Office of Security Cooperation, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, and the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies on institutional Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Development. 

This effort aligns with the US Secretary of Defense’s priority to address persistent threats on the African continent by strengthening partner security.

ISG Regional Advising Principal Scott Woodruff Lyons recently published an article titled, “The U.S.’s Recent Enhanced Efforts to Fight Corruption by Protected Individuals” in the latest issue of The American Society of International Law's ASIL Insights. The article spotlights a legal case against a former Sri Lankan Ambassador to illustrate how the United States is making strides in its fight against corruption, in this case, by foreign officials. 

The Institute for Security Governance along with United States Army Pacific, CMO Bangladesh Armed Forces Division, and Oregon National Guard conducted the opening ceremony for the 2022 Bangladesh Disaster Response Exercise and Exchange (DREE). 

DREE is an earthquake disaster related exercise, which has been conducted in Bangladesh since 2010. ISG has been playing a leading role in the management and coordination of the event, and will be kicking off the table-top exercise portion shortly.

There are over 18 Partner nations attending the DREE Physically.

An ISG team recently visited the 162nd Wing in Tucson, Arizona. The 162nd Wing is the U.S. lead for training F-16 pilots for foreign partners and allies, including Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania. The team met with Partner Nation student pilots, received a tour of base facilities, and were given the opportunity to try the F-16 flight simulators. The visit provided an excellent opportunity to learn more about how the Partners train, and how ISG might work with the 162 WG for successful employment of Partner F-16 programs in support of air policing and NATO air operations.  

Members of ISG recently met with Slovakian Ministry of Defence (MoD), General Staff, and HQ Air Force personnel to learn about air operations related to the arrival of new F-16 aircraft. Collaboration with Slovakian Partners was invaluable to developing an integrated, long-term institutional capacity building (ICB) program related to Slovakian F-16 air operations in support of national and regional defense efforts.

ISG Africa Regional Program Lead Dr. Whitney Grespin’s recently published an article titled, “Things Fall Apart: Soviet Assistance to the Somali Armed Forces, 1960–1977” in the latest issue of The Journal of African Military History. In this piece, Dr. Grespin and co-author Mr. Matthew Marchese noted, “As Cold War tensions rose, Soviet aid was offered to the nascent Somali government in pursuit of broader geopolitical machinations that were seen to supersede Somali interests, laying the groundwork for a decades-long mismatch between local intentions and Cold War superpower objectives in the Horn of Africa.” The result of this mismatch, they argue, “left Somalia with an unsustainable, corrupt, and repressive security structure as a direct result of high levels of foreign assistance that were not well coordinated with host nation sustainment capabilities.”

In this issue of The ISG Heron, the Institute reflects on the DSCA Director’s fruitful visit to ISG, applauds ISG's Resident Advisor to Lithuania for receiving the Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service, welcomes new colleagues, marks the successful conclusion of the two-year educating-the-educators mobile seminar series in Ghana, offers a standing ovation to Emergency Management & Resilience colleagues, highlights Resident Education in Logistics Capacity Building, spotlights ICB Advising achievements in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and many more newsworthy developments.

As the lead coordinating entity for 10th annual Exercise Gobi Wolf 2022, The Institute for Security Governance (ISG) brought together stakeholders from U.S. Army Pacific, the Alaska Air and Army National Guard, the U.S. Forest Service, and the international community to exchange expertise and best practices in disaster response. Taking place in early September in Bayankhongor, Mongolia, Exercise Gobi Wolf is part of the Pacific Resilience Disaster Response Exercise and Exchange (DREE) program, which focuses on interagency coordination and foreign humanitarian assistance. The six-day exercise featured three main events: an expert academic discussion, tabletop exercise, and field training exercise.

ISG’s Maritime Security Functional Lead, Tim Doorey and his team recently returned from leading a five-day Institutional Capacity Building workshop in Sri Lanka focused on comprehensive approaches to building Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). The event was in coordination with the United States Embassy in Sri Lanka, where 29 officers from the Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Coast Guard, Attorney General’s Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Merchant Shipping Secretariat and Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources took part in the training.

Topics covered in the training included: human capital development, community resource management, operation research tools for maritime search and interception, building MDA capabilities to enhance operational effectiveness, decision making at all levels, and developing and maintaining partner fusion centers. The course culminated with all 30 participants working a comprehensive tabletop exercise.

ISG Resident Advisor to the Republic of Lithuania, Mr. David Antonik, received the Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service from Vice Minister of Defense Mr. Vilius Semesk earlier this month. Bravo Zulu!

Mr. Antonik deployed to Vilnius, Lithuania in August 2021 to support the Lithuanian Military of Defense on strategic logistics matters. To learn more about Mr. Antonik's background, check out his bio.

In the 2022 Autumn issue of The U.S. Army War College Quarterly, Parameters, ISG Africa Regional Program Lead Dr. Whitney Grespin reviews Benedict Wilkinson's Scripts of Terror: The Stories Terrorists Tell Themselves (Oxford University Press, 2020). In the review, she notes that, "the work reads primarily as academic. Wilkinson’s (admirable) observation of the central problem lacks a 'step further' approach." Nevertheless, Dr. Grespin goes on to say that, "Even with areas in need of improvement, Scripts of Terror could serve as a useful primer for VEO case studies. It could prepare practitioners as pre-deployment reading for a better understanding of the foundations and evolutions of potential adversaries." 

Read the full review here.

ISG's International Defense Acquisition Resource Management team recently executed a 2-week Advanced Defense Logistics and Life Cycle Cost Management course in Miami, Florida for a group of Partner Nation participants affiliated with the U.S. Department of State's Central America Maritime Regional Initiative (CAMRI). ISG Course Director Brooke Adame joined students, the instructional team, and the SOUTHCOM J5 CAMRI Integrator on a tour of Coast Guard Sector Miami to reinforce practical application of maritime maintenance and logistics considerations.

Over the past year, an Institute for Security Governance’s (ISG) Resident Advisor has been deployed to Qatar and working with the Qatar Armed Forces (QAF) on an ongoing safety and security mission. Encompassed in this line of effort is the development of a security operations plan for the International Federation of Football Association’s (FIFA) 2022 World Cup, scheduled to begin in November.

ISG was honored to host DSCA Director Mr. James Hursch along with DSCU President Dr. Celeste Gventer at in Monterey this week. In addition to learning more from faculty and staff about the growth and impact of ISG’s work in areas such as Cyber and Resilience, Dr. Hursch shared an overview of DSCA’s strategic priorities, including the expanding role that Institutional Capacity Building will play in U.S. defense strategy. Director Hursch was generous with his time at the well-attended ISG Town Hall event, providing insightful responses to questions from ISG colleagues.

We look forward to continuing to contribute to the important work that happens throughout the Security Cooperation Enterprise.

ISG recently supported The Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI), U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and service members from dozens of partner nations in Exercise Garuda Canti Dharma 2022, Indonesia. This regionally rotating exercise is the largest annual international peacekeeping field training exercise in the world. ISG's Peacekeeping and Exercises Program trained and mentored multinational teams of instructors to execute a Staff Training Event and a Field Training Event for over 750 Indonesian and International Peacekeepers.

ISG's International Defense Acquisition Resource Management team executed a successful mobile education team event focused on fundamental concepts and challenges associated with national and global defense contracting for the South African National Defense Force. Participants from across the services were engaged and are working to identify and implement procurement applications within across the defense environment.

Mr. Nicholas (Nick) Tomb – a Functional Lead for Security Governance and Civil-Military Relations at the Institute for Security Governance (ISG) – recently returned from Washington D.C., where he presented on the successful completion of a two-year (2020-2022), in-country Educating-the-Educators Seminar Series for the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to the Bureau for Political-Military Affairs and the Africa Bureau for Regional Security Affairs. As Mr. Tomb reported in his presentation, the goals of the seminar series were to enable the GAF to conduct Civil-Military Operations (CMO) education on its own and to develop a program of instruction tailored to the specific needs of its military.