文章基本信息

标题：Strengthening Alliances: International PME Programs Yield Layers of Strategic Benefit
本地全文：下载
作者：John R.Berg ; Allan Buch Sampaio ; Jorge Alberto Benavides Orellana 等
期刊名称：US Air Force Journal of the Americas
电子版ISSN：2639-801X
出版年度：2019
卷号：1
期号：1
页码：140-146
语种：English
出版社：Air University Press
摘要：The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Air Force have identified the strengthening of US alliances as a top, strategic priority. As specified in his guidance memorandum to all Department of Defense personnel in October 2017, US Secretary of DefenseJames Mattis lays out as one of his three lines of effort to “strengthen alliances andattract new partners.”1 The Secretary of Defense further states that “history is compelling on thispoint: nations with strong allies thrive, while those without stagnate and wither.”2 In the fiveUSAF priorities outlined in 2017, the focus on “strengthening alliances” appears again.3 Whilethe desired end state of strengthened alliances is clear, the ways and means by which this endstate is achieved are varied and at times less well-defined. The roadmap to a strong, strategic alliance between nations touches all the instruments of national power: diplomacy, exchange ofinformation, military cooperation, and economic ties. Strengthening alliances is not the soleresponsibility of the Department of Defense, but within it some of the “ways and means” include international military exercises, foreign military sales, personnel exchanges, international military education and training, and diplomatic military representation through a defense attaché.In order for the USAF to advance the USAF Secretary’s strategic priorities—and for allied nations like Brazil and El Salvador to advance the mutual priorities of their senior leaders—all ofthe aforementioned activities should be reviewed and bolstered. The focus of this article is international military education and training; our thesis is that international professional militaryeducation (PME) programs provide unique benefits to improve trust, foster cooperation, andstrengthen international military alliances. For these reasons, international PME programsshould be promoted and expanded.