U.S. DOD Augments Stability Operations with Partners, Private Sector
06:23 GMT, October 18, 2012 WASHINGTON | Conducting stability operations is
a core mission for the U.S. military, but the Defense Strategic Guidance and
10 years of war make clear a continuing need to augment the range of such
operations with the skills of regional partners and the private sector, a
senior defense official said Oct. 16.
James A. Schear, deputy assistant secretary of defense for partnership
strategy and stability operations, spoke at the annual summit of the
International Stability Operations Association.
The ISOA represents companies that provide services and support to the
international community in conflict, post-conflict and disaster-relief
operations.
“The direction of the DSG, the Defense Strategic Guidance, is pretty clear.
It places great emphasis on building the security capacity of others,”
Schear said.
Stability operations, which are usually military operations in civilian
environments, include many missions, among them peace operations, combating
terrorism, counter-drug operations, population control and nation
assistance.
“While we’re seeking to rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region while
maintaining our emphasis on the Middle East, as we must, we’re also viewing
security cooperation as a way to sustain our defense commitments within
Europe and partnerships across all regions,” Schear said.
Opportunities to work with increasingly capable regional partners are
multiplying, he said, and public-private partners have cultural and language
expertise, and technological innovations that allow U.S. forces to overcome
a lack of language expertise — an issue of enduring importance.
The U.S. military will have other looming stabilization operation needs, he
noted.
“As the Army expands its emphasis on regional alignment, our ability to
train, educate and augment U.S. military forces’ abilities to operate in
diverse cultural environments will be critical,” Schear said.
Military training will adjust to address these increasing needs, he added,
“but it will not be able to prepare every force for every contingency.”
Schear said his sense is that partnerships with the private sector, as was
the case in Iraq and Afghanistan, will continue to be needed to augment
military capabilities.
Conflict prevention also will be increasingly important for the State
Department and for all departments and agencies, he said.
“In regions where America’s national interests are at stake, we must make
the requisite investment now to help us forego the requirement for larger,
more expensive and more intrusive operations later on,” Shear added.
The latest State Department Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review
clearly states a desire to work with the private sector on conflict
prevention, and develop more flexible and cost-effective expert cores that
can quickly deploy, he said.
“I would even go further,” the deputy assistant secretary added, “and say
not only the U.S. government but our allies and partners will see increasing
needs for private-sector expertise and capabilities in areas such as
improving governance, monitoring tenuous situations, and providing an
immediate-response capability.”
Augmenting partners’ abilities will increase the importance that the United
States applies to foreign militaries in this more distributed model of
intraregional security, Schear said.
“As is well-established in the peacekeeping domain, public-private
collaboration on training is necessary not only to improve our relationships
with partners but to build regional conflict prevention and response,” he
added.
The department has taken initial steps to implement the strategic guidance
on stability operations, including the February Biennial Assessment of
Stability Operations Capabilities that Schear said “reaffirms stability
operations as a core competency for U.S. armed forces” and gives DOD “a good
start in working on a roadmap for future investments.”
The effort’s centerpiece is an ongoing departmentwide joint
capabilities-based assessment, called the JCBA, that spans all services and
DOD components, he said.
Army leadership has begun a process that will consider military
capabilities, gaps and shortfalls to be addressed in retaining perishable
stability operations skills, he added, while securing the participation of
other departments and agencies to study the government’s ability to conduct
the complex missions.
“Over the longer term we’re also intent upon designating a joint proponent
for stability operations for the department . writ large,” Schear said.
“That step would move us beyond a purely policy-advocacy role, which my
office plays, toward an entity that can bring together as a lead integrator
all the activities that feed into the organizing, staffing, training,
resourcing and force-generating aspects of this effort,” he added.
Key elements for meeting future mission demands include continued support
for the civil affairs community for units that can be sized and
task-organized for stability operations-related missions, and the growth of
regionally aligned general-purpose forces, he said, which is “already a
direction we’re heading in.”
It will also be necessary to retain civil-military teaming and to further
develop educational training and exercise opportunities that stress
nonkinetic aspects of stabilization and reconstruction, Schear added.
The refinement of critically important niche capabilities such as expertise
in transitional law enforcement also will be needed, he said, and U.S. armed
forces are required to cover critical gaps.
“As this assessment matures over time and as we seek to implement lessons
from the findings of the Joint Staff’s [June 2012 Decade of War, Vol. 1] .
I’m confident that we’ll delve further into the questions of legal
authorities, force development, force management, interagency participation
and public-private collaboration,” Schear said, adding that all are
“absolutely vital in retaining our stability operations capabilities.”
—-
Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
