Mr. Holland assumed the responsibilities of DSCU’s Deputy Assistant Director for Security Cooperation Workforce Development Program – Human Capital Initiative (SCWDP-HCI) in June 2024. In this role, he provides leadership and oversite of the Congressionally mandated development and management of the security cooperation workforce (SCW), including training, certification, assignment, career development, and tracking of SCW personnel.
ARLINGTON, Va.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s (DSCA) Defense Security Cooperation University (DSCU) and their co-host, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (OUSD(A&S)), facilitated the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Symposium, held May 23-24, 2024, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Approximately 250 policymakers, scholars, practitioners, and defense industry professionals gathered to discuss key issues facing the security cooperation community.
Security cooperation activities advance U.S. national security and foreign policy interests by enabling and encouraging foreign partners to address shared security challenges. Those efforts include the development of military capabilities, combined training efforts, military-to-military engagement, FMS, and the daily efforts of the U.S. security cooperation workforce across the globe.
The 1.5-day inaugural FMS Symposium, “Professionalization of the Workforce and the Promise of Security Cooperation,” featured remarks from leaders in the field, structured panel sessions on important FMS topics, and an Industry Day.
The panels on the first day, which observed the Chatham House Rule, discussed, among other topics, current issues within the FMS program, understanding partner nation needs, and whole-of-government perspectives on supporting allies and partners. Mr. Christopher Mewett, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Partnerships, provided the keynote address, which covered FMS and the strategic environment. Mr. James Hursch, DSCA Director, gave an update on security cooperation workforce initiatives and announced the establishment of the FMS Center of Excellence within DSCU.
During Industry Day, the Honorable Cara Abercrombie, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition; Ms. Madeline Mortelmans, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Capabilities; and Mr. Mike Miller, DSCA Deputy Director, began the day with a conversation centered on the importance of working with U.S. industry to enable the efficient delivery of security assistance to our allies and partners.
The Symposium provided a collaborative forum for security cooperation stakeholders from across the Department of Defense, interagency, academia, industry, and foreign partners to engage in frank and rigorous exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of current processes. Additionally, the event set the stage for improved security cooperation enterprise interoperability, continued innovation within the FMS system, and initiatives to empower and strengthen the security cooperation workforce.
DSCU holds itself accountable to a high standard of security cooperation education and practice by building and using evidence-based knowledge to inform curriculum and professionalize security cooperation. Through events like the FMS Symposium and the Security Cooperation Conference held annually in October, DSCU partners with the security cooperation enterprise to help expand the intellectual foundations of and promote critical inquiry concerning security cooperation.
DSCU and all of DSCA greatly appreciates the contributions of all the esteemed Symposium participants who helped address key issues facing security cooperation and the FMS process.
About
The OUSD(A&S) mission is “Enable the Delivery and Sustainment of Secure, Resilient, and Preeminent Capabilities to the Warfighter and International Partners Quickly and Cost Effectively.”
DSCA’s mission is to advance U.S. defense and foreign policy interests by building the capacity of foreign partners in order to encourage and enable allies and partners to respond to shared challenges.
DSCU’s mission is to advance the knowledge and practice of security cooperation through the education, training, and development of the U.S. security cooperation workforce and through the education, training, and institutional capacity building of partner nations; and to produce research, analysis, and lessons learned that expand the intellectual foundations of security cooperation.
The Defense Security Cooperation University’s new Defense Security Cooperation Organization Institute (DSI) hosted the inaugural Security Cooperation Organization (SCO) Operations Refresher Course in Arlington, Va. from May 13-17, 2024. Eighteen joint officers explored policy updates, reviewed security assistance programs, renewed security cooperation procedures, considered applications for these procedures overseas, and viewed strategic competition opportunities through a security cooperation lens.
Along with classroom instruction, the students spoke with security cooperation enterprise leaders and visited stakeholders from the service implementing agencies, the Joint Staff, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, and the Department of State’s Political Military and Regional Bureaus.
The SCO Operations Refresher Course is intended for SCO Chiefs and Senior Defense Official/Defense Attachés (SDO/DATTs) to implement, integrate, design, and manage security cooperation programs at the country and regional levels. This course is designed for previously trained SCO personnel, primarily at the O-5 and O-6 level, who have attended the SCO Operations Course, or predecessor courses with DSCU, and have two years successful service in an Embassy SCO.
DSCA is recruiting for an Public Affairs Specialist GS-1035 -12 FPL GS-13. This position is located within DSCU/COS with a duty location of Arlington, VA. Interested candidates are encouraged to apply by following the job title link above.
DSCA is recruiting for a Supervisory IT Specialist (INET/NETWORK) GS-2210-14. This position is located within DSCU/COS with a duty location of either Arlington, VA; Wright-Patterson AFB, OH; Newport, RI; or Monterey, CA. Interested candidates are encouraged to apply by following the link above.
The Defense Security Cooperation University (DSCU) is addressing legislative mandates, National Defense Strategy (NDS) initiatives, and the needs of Security Cooperation Organization (SCO) personnel through the recent graduation of SCO Operations Course students, the establishment of the Defense Security Cooperation Service (DSCS), and the standup and transition to the National Capital Region (NCR)of the Defense SCO Institute (DSI) this fall. On April 25, 2024, 45 students graduated DSCU’s seven-week SCO Operations Course, which prepares both military and civilian SCO personnel to represent the Department of Defense (DOD) to operate in complex, interagency, and international environments.
Prescribed by 10 U.S.C. Section 384 and revised in the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Section 1204, DSCU is mandated to ensure that those who represent the DOD to partner nations are a professionalized force with the training and support necessary to advance national security objectives.
SCO Operations Course 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. The course concludes with a week in the NCR, during which students focus on forging key relationships for their in-country assignments. Additionally, during this iteration of the course, the students had the opportunity to connect with DSCU leadership on two major NDAA and NDS initiatives, the DSCS and DSI.
Dr. Jason Fritz, DSCU Vice President, discussed DSCU’s establishment of the Defense SCO Institute (DSI) in the National Capital Region this fall. DSCU’s new DSI will serve as the DOD SCO schoolhouse, which will provide bespoke preparation and training essential for SCO personnel to be mission ready day one of their assignments. Learn more about DSI in the April edition of the DSCU Report Card.
Mr. Saul Bracero, DSCU Deputy Assistant Director for Strategic Workforce Programs, briefed and engaged in questions and answers about the DSCS. The DSCS will be established as a DSCA directorate with initial operating capability by October 2025. The establishment of the DSCS will consolidate the support infrastructure of the DOD’s critical SCO personnel at U.S. embassies into a single organization to ensure appropriate allocation of limited personnel resources across a global demand.
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.
DSCA is recruiting for a Human Resources Specialist (Classification/Recruitment), GS-0201-13. This position is located within DSCU/DSCS in Arlington, VA. Interested candidates are encouraged to apply by following the link above.
The newly established Irregular Warfare Center is scheduled to host its first IW-themed event, the IW Medical Resiliency Workgroup, from Feb. 22-24, 2023, in Bethesda, Md.
This event is the Center’s initial working group for Irregular Warfare Medicine curriculum development. The event will bring together U.S. and allied and partner nation surgeons to discuss medical capabilities in contested or non-permissive environments.
Opening remarks will be provided by the Honorable Christopher P. Maier, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, Dr. Woodson, the President of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Dr. Dennis Walters, IWC Acting Director.
“Our goal is to amplify the medical communities’ efforts to counter and build resiliency against threats and increase our collective optionality to address these threats when required, through efforts like resistance,” said Dr. Dennis Walters, IWC Acting Director. “We’ll do this through the workshop by collecting data from the medical community, analyze and develop academic solutions to identified educational gaps, invigorate a more strategic approach to IW medicine campaign planning and discover capability shortcomings. This is an amazing opportunity for the medical community to dive deep and create a way forward as a synergistic IW community.”
The 3-day event will include a variety of guest speakers and irregular warfare SME’s, various briefs on Irregular Warfare Medicine topics, as well as break-out sessions to identify capabilities, gaps and share findings to support the IWC’s medical security cooperation efforts.
“The goal for this event is to create a collaborative network of irregular warfare medical personnel that will be integral in developing medical resiliency curriculum in other than normal environments,” said Lori Leffler, IWC Chief of Staff. “The IWC has recognized that it’s important to convene in a setting such as this workshop to talk through barriers and innovate ways to address these concerns. Being a part of the IWC and being part of our first event is an incredible opportunity and is only a small purview of what the Center has on the horizon.”
The IWC serves as the central mechanism for developing the Department of Defense’s (DOD) irregular warfare knowledge and advancing the Department’s understanding of irregular warfare concepts and doctrine in collaboration with key allies and partners.
The Center’s foundation is built upon three Lines of Effort:
Through these LOEs, the Irregular Warfare Center addresses current and emerging security concerns and challenges with world-class research, rigorous analysis, top-tier strategic education and training for U.S. and international partners.
News item #60142
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.
DSCU’s president, Dr. Celeste W. Gventer, hosted a consultative session March, 24, 2023, during which Security Cooperation stakeholders and scholars brainstormed ideas for the potential scope and themes of the 2023 Security Cooperation Conference.
The consultative session deliberated the following questions: What topics should the Security Cooperation community explore? How should the scope and approach to the conference evolve? How can we best elicit continued dialogue and action following the conference? Results from this consultative session will inform the concept and planning for the 2023 Security Cooperation Conference scheduled to take place in October.
The 2022 Security Cooperation Conference, co-hosted by (DSCU) and The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, brought together approximately 130 Security Cooperation experts from across the policy, practitioner, and academic communities. The conference examined the state of Security Cooperation today; the implications of recent global security trends and demands on the Security Cooperation enterprise; and whether, and how, the Department of Defense should adjust its approach to Security Cooperation in the future. The dialogue generated new thinking on frameworks, innovative approaches, and key challenges.
