Posted on: 3/9/2023
Dr. Celeste Gventer, Defense Security Cooperation University (DSCU) President, hosted a focus group March 10, 2023, on the future of Institutional Capacity Building (ICB). The event rallied subject matter experts across Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Congress, Department of State, practitioner organizations, and academia.
The focus group helped establish a shared understanding and intellectual foundation for professionalizing the practice of ICB, to include updates to curriculum, research priorities, workforce competency development, and application of best practice. The rich discussion among the participants highlighted the criticality of integrating ICB for effective #SecurityCooperation (SC) and achievement of defense objectives with allies and partners.
Participants recognized that ICB integration is only possible with a competent SC workforce proficient in both understanding partner institutional realities to inform better SC decisions and helping partners address institution shortfalls that pose risk to shared objectives.