The State Partnership Program: vision to reality

Joint Force Quarterly,  July, 2006  by Pablo Pagan

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In October 2005, forces from U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) traveled to Guatemala City, Guatemala, to support local authorities inspecting damage from Hurricane Stan. The command deployed a 58-person disaster response team and 8 helicopters to the Central American nation as part of relief efforts. Among this team, and among those back in the United States facilitating the recovery assistance programs, were troops whose professional skills and long affiliation with Guatemala's military, civilian, and business leadership proved invaluable in helping the disaster-stricken region. They were members of the Arkansas National Guard helping their colleagues under the auspices of an international security cooperation effort known as the State Partnership Program (SPP).

Unlike other combatant commands, USSOUTHCOM is not currently engaged in combat operations. Its daily threats and challenges, however, are no less significant to the security of the Nation or its allies. These issues, and the approaches to solving them, can be more subtle and complex than combat, and they must be confronted in an atmosphere often marred by poverty, inequality, and corruption.

With only 0.4 percent of the defense budget, USSOUTHCOM must use its limited resources creatively to accomplish its mission of conducting military operations and promoting security cooperation to support U.S. strategic objectives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Its tools are primarily those of engagement. As a vehicle that allows for military-to-military, military-to-civilian, and civilian-to-civilian interface, perhaps the most flexible instrument in the command's security cooperation tool chest is the National Guard's SPP.

Area of Responsibility

U.S. Southern Command is the unified command responsible for all U.S. military activities on the land mass of Latin America south of Mexico; the waters adjacent to Central and South America; the Caribbean Sea, with its 13 island nations and European and U.S. territories; the Gulf of Mexico; and a portion of the Atlantic Ocean. Its area of responsibility (AOR) encompasses 32 countries (19 in Central and South America and 13 in the Caribbean) and covers 14.5 million square miles. The region represents about one-sixth of the land mass assigned to regional unified commands.

Although many nations in the AOR experienced violent internal conflict and high levels of human rights abuse in the second half of the last century, since the 1990s, all but one have adopted democratic forms of government and are working to strengthen democratic institutions, civil society, and political parties.

Nonetheless, their military and security forces face grave challenges to their ability to protect citizens from street crime, gangs, international terrorism, transnational crime, attacks by illegal armed groups, and other forms of violence, while continuing to respect and protect the civil liberties and basic freedoms on which their democracies are based. Military forces, in particular, are increasingly called on by civilian governments to perform nontraditional missions, such as supporting police and other security forces in law enforcement missions, disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, counterdrug and counterterrorism missions, environmental protection, and peacekeeping and peace support missions, all of which bring the military into close contact with civilian populations.

Command Vision and Theater Security Cooperation Strategy

The USSOUTHCOM vision is to be the recognized partner of choice and center of excellence for regional security affairs within a hemisphere of escalating importance by supporting defense of the homeland and achieving regional partnerships that:

* promote democratic values and principles

* respect human rights

* secure territories and defend borders

* ensure regional and hemispheric security

* deter, dissuade, and defeat transnational threats to regional stability.

Meeting this vision requires that the command work with the U.S. Ambassadors and their country teams in the area in support of their individual country plans. The command depends on strong relationships with the country teams to integrate interagency objectives into its operations.

The commands theater strategy--derived directly from the President's national security strategy--is based on promoting regional security and stability among partner democracies. The command supports U.S. interests in four principal ways:

* building regional cooperative security

* developing military roles and missions for the 21st century

* supporting the national counterdrug strategy

* restructuring USSOUTHCOM for the future.

Besides the ever-present resource challenge, meeting the vision requires that efforts have appropriate breadth and continuity, traditionally weak points in a military-oriented approach. In the former case, uniformed military personnel may lack access (by law, custom, or opportunity) to law enforcement, civil government, or private sector contacts, limiting the scope of their activities. Regarding continuity, the typical 3-year tour of duty for regular military personnel assigned to a combatant command or shorter terms characteristic of downrange assignments are limiting factors.