Posted on: 3/6/2024
Forty-five Security Cooperation Organization (SCO) students graduated the Defense Security Cooperation University’s (DSCU) seven-week SCO Operations Course on February 29, 2024. The course, which takes place in Ohio, Indiana, and the National Capital Region (NCR), prepares both military and civilian SCO personnel to represent the Department of Defense (DOD) to allies and partners on Security Cooperation and Assistance programs in complex, interagency, and international environments.
As an academic institution, DSCU holds itself accountable to a higher standard of Security Cooperation education by using evidence-based knowledge to inform DSCU’s curriculum, especially training and education for SCO personnel who perform critical duties at U.S. embassies worldwide. Therefore, DSCU made important changes to the SCO curriculum for 2024, to include incorporating the Department of State-mandated Foreign Affairs Counter Threat (FACT) Course equivalency training. Students traveled to Muscatatuck, Indiana, and completed the 40-hour block of instruction on a variety of safety-related topics including driver’s training and tactical medical care.
In addition to incorporating FACT-equivalency training, the SCO Operations Course also integrated a new in-resident week for the SCO Spouse Course, which invited spouses to participate in relevant training together with SCO Operations Course students. The spouses received important instruction on a myriad of topics including diplomatic etiquette and protocol, diplomatic immunities, and ethics.
DSCU’s SCO Operations Course provides crucial instruction for SCO personnel executing Security Cooperation activities with Allies and partners in support of the National Defense Strategy. Students glean knowledge from lectures, group work, and practical exercises while hearing from multiple guest speakers and experts including senior military and policy leaders, ambassadors, academics, and Security Cooperation practitioners. DSCU is especially grateful to Major General Donn H. Hill, Commanding General Security Force Assistance Command, who spoke with the students in February about his organization’s role in Security Cooperation and the interaction with SCO personnel.
The course concludes with a week in the NCR. This final phase focuses on forging key relationships for their in-country assignments with the contacts needed to be that vital link between U.S. whole-of-government Security Cooperation efforts and Partner Nations.
About
DSCU strives to be the center of intellectual life for the Security Cooperation enterprise; we prepare a global network of professionals to achieve outcomes that enhance the security of the United States and its partners and allies. DSCU works to ensure SCO personnel and their spouses have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to develop and sustain key relationships, assist partners in determining how to address capability and capacity gaps, and translate partner requirements into actionable Security Cooperation initiatives.