Marshall Center working group focuses on needs of civil security professionals
September 2007
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany — Civil security experts from both sides of the Atlantic and Eurasia came together at the Marshall Center here Sept. 10-13 to examine the professional development needs of those charged with protecting their homeland.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense Paul McHale addresses civil security experts from 23 countries Sept. 12 at the Marshall Center. The civil security practitioners and academics were participating in a working group that examined the professional development needs of those working in the emerging civil security field. Marshall Center Professor Dr. Jack Clarke chaired the Sept. 10-13 event, organized in cooperation with the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs.
(Photo by Karlheinz Wedhorn)
The four-day working group, which included civil security practitioners and academics from 23 countries, focused on identifying what civil security professionals throughout the trans-Atlantic and Eurasian area need to know and how to raise the level of professional development in the emerging civil security field.
The working group, the first ever on trans-Atlantic civil security, made an important contribution to the new field, according to the working group chairman, Marshall Center Professor Dr. Jack Clarke.
“The working group compiled a comprehensive list of professional competencies for leaders and planners who carry out homeland security, homeland defense, civil emergency planning, crisis management and other aspects of civil security,” Clarke said.
“The meeting laid the foundation of a community of expertise on civil security issues. There is a great need for such a community to establish core competencies and the base of knowledge in this field.”
The working group also brought the Marshall Center a step closer to realizing its new Program on Civil Security, which will focus on the ability of nations to address internal security issues that can have regional and international impact. In particular, the working group made recommendations on educational objectives, methods and resources that will shape the program’s resident course, the Seminar on Transatlantic Civil Security.
“A substantial number of new ideas and suggestions were offered,” Clarke said. “It was important to hear what stakeholders felt were priorities, what practitioners and clients want and need, and what academia thinks makes sense. The working group succeeded in developing these three perspectives.”
Clarke, who edited a book published in February on how 10 countries and the European Union use their military forces in national emergencies, sees a definite need for the new program.
“There is no program in Europe that addresses the civil security framework we have developed,” Clarke said. “Some important institutions address parts of it, such as crisis management, but none do so in the comprehensive manner the Marshall Center proposes to do so.”
In addition to the resident STACS course, the program will also include a traveling outreach and consulting team and a research element. The first STACS course is planned for July 2008.
