By Jason Tudor
GCMC Public Affairs
GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany -- The ability to counter narcotics trafficking took center stage during an eight-day seminar here as military and civilian security executives meeting met at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies to discuss the challenge.
Senior Executive Seminar 10-1 gathered 91 participants from 61 countries. The seminar focused on the complex security challenges posed by contemporary international narcotics trafficking, and its links with terrorist networks and organized crime elements. The seminar participants examined how narcotics profits are used to fund terrorist activities, corrupt officials, and challenge and erode the authority of states.
“In today’s globalized environment, counter-narcotics programs create intricate interdependencies within the international community which must be managed on numerous levels,” said Dr. Jay Le Beau, director of the Senior Executive Seminar. “As a result, there will also be discussion on various regional approaches that have been implemented to combat this problem.”
Among the 91 participants were 21 Africans from Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon., Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Swaziland, the Togolese Republic, and Uganda.
The seminar included almost a dozen speakers from a cross section of military and civilian disciplines, including Army Gen. Kip Ward, commander of U.S. Africa Command. Also, Ambassador J. Anthony Holmes, deputy to the commander for civil-military activities for U.S. Africa Command, served as the graduation keynote speaker.
Ambassador Holmes, whose background includes better than 15 years of experience in Africa and policy issues on Africa as a State Department employee, emphasized partnership and working together to address drug trafficking issues.
“The problem itself is regional. It is inherently multilateral,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a transit country. There’s no such thing as a producing country. Virtually all countries are producing, transit and consuming countries. ”
The Marshall Center’s Senior Executive Seminar is a forum that allows for the in-depth exploration of international security issues. Participants include high-level government officials, general officers, senior diplomats, ambassadors, ministers, and parliamentarians. The SES format includes presentations by senior officials and recognized experts followed by discussions in seminar groups.
The 2010 sessions concentrate on the broad topics of narcotics trafficking and terrorism, and their impact on security in Europe and beyond. By considering these issues as different aspects of the broader theme of international security, the complex interdependencies in international and networked security can be more easily understood.
