Monday, June 6, 2016

Foreign Internal Defense .... and Specialized Civilian Affairs

International Security Cooperation Summit

“By, With, and Through”: Negotiating the challenges of Building Partner Capacity to deliver the highest return-on-investment programs with an eye to the latest innovative and cost-effective solutions.



Dear Colleague,

It’s no secret that we live and operate in an increasingly interconnected and complex world, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Central Region. In recent years, we’ve seen the uncertainty and conflict among regional state and non-state actors grow at an unprecedented rate, making the challenges of meeting security objectives increasingly interdependent with the relationships we have across this wide and diverse geographic region. But the security challenges we face are not simply regional - developing and aligning security cooperation efforts to meet a common threat picture in concert across the whole of government, as well as with our allied partners, presents its own challenges.

While facing these challenges, tight fiscal constraints only underscore the need to find new ways to more effectively and efficiently work together to get the most out of our security cooperation funding.

Over the three day summit, we will look at opportunities to engage stakeholders from government, academia, and industry to better address Building Partner Capacity in the Central Region. We will take an in-depth look at increasing return-on-investment cooperation in the security sector, including programs to Train and Equip forces to conduct Counterterrorism (CT) and Stability Operations. We will also look at requirements to develop partner nation Special Operations Forces (SOF) capacity, Border Security, Maritime Security, Logistics, Civil Affairs, Defense Institutions, and others.

We will kick off the summit with a deep-dive focus day examining security cooperation activities specifically focused on addressing the transnational threat posed by ISIL. Countering this deadly violent extremist organization is not just about find, fix and finish – it necessitates a comprehensive approach with coordination and cooperative activities across the full-spectrum of activity with our partners. We will look at specific capability development, sustainment of that capability, strategic goals, and the necessary adaptability of programs to anticipate and respond to emergent and dynamic requirements.

I look forward to seeing you at this year’s Summit!

LTC(R) Brett Mott,
Chairperson
2016 IQPC International Security Cooperation Summit