Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany — The first class of the Marshall Center’s Program for Security, Stability, Transition and Reconstruction, or SSTAR, graduated here April 1.
Gen. Egon Ramms, commander of NATO’s Joint Force Command in Brunssum, Netherlands, congratulates Wg. Cdr. John Cummings upon completion of the Program for Security, Stability, Transition and Reconstruction April 1. Cummings, from New Zealand, traveled the farthest of the 41 military and civilian officials who participated in the Marshall Center’s first SSTAR course. SSTAR addresses the why, when and how of a nation’s participation in multinational stability, security, transition and reconstruction operations.
(Photo by Karlheinz Wedhorn)
Forty-one military and civilian participants from 33 countries completed the new three-week course, which addresses the why, when and how of a nation’s participation in multinational stability, security, transition and reconstruction operations.
In his graduation address, Gen. Egon Ramms, commander of NATO’s Joint Force Command in Brunssum, Netherlands, told participants that over the past year of commanding the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan at the operational level, he has come to appreciate the paramount importance of integrating the military, civilian and political efforts.
“I have no economic planning staff in my headquarters, no one capable of training lawyers and judges, no banking experts, no agronomists and urban planners,” Ramms said. “With proper support from the nations, I can provide the 20 or 30 percent of the solution to Afghanistan’s problems that relate to security and military matters. But who will provide the other 70 or 80 percent?”
Ramms said that while a comprehensive approach to multinational operations is now widely accepted, it remains complex to implement, and he urged participants, all of whom are involved in planning and executing their nations’ involvement in stability operations, to take on the challenge.
“I call on you to understand what stability operations require and tailor our multinational approaches to meet the needs of the mission,” Ramms said. “Understand the national approaches of other nations so we have realistic planning goals. Understand agency differences and capabilities. Above all, prepare plans, programs and policies to enable our individual countries to participate in these operations.”
SSTAR director Marine Col. James Howcroft said the course exceeded his expectations in addressing the complex issues of interagency and multinational operations.
“Several of the participants said to me after the first week, ‘This is hard stuff,’ but by the end of course they were saying, ‘These are hard issues, but they can be dealt with, it’s just a matter of us developing the right tools to deal with them,’” Howcroft said.
“We were quite fortunate to have as guest speakers a number of senior officials from a variety of nations, both military and civilian, who came and shared their passion about solving these problems, who talked about their experience and how they’re changing their organizations and institutions to address them,” the colonel said.
SSTAR provided a valuable opportunity to take stock of their efforts to date, according to participants, who represented 15 agencies and organizations and about half of whom have been in stability operations.
“I have had a lot of experience in doing and needed time to reflect and update myself on what is happening, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan and other areas,” said Lt. Col. Michael McDermott, executive officer and chief instructor of the United Nations Training School Ireland. “You get involved in day-to-day operational activities and it’s good to have time to build a conceptual framework and update oneself on where we stand in this dynamic environment.”
Another benefit of the course was the chance to build connections with colleagues from around the world, according to Col. Dan Stroescu, Strategic Planning Directorate, Romanian General Staff.
“For me it was an added value to be able to try to establish an interagency, international network which enables us to communicate and plan well to execute this type of operation,” Stroescu said.
The second SSTAR class begins in August. SSTAR is one of five different resident courses offered by the Marshall Center, a German-American defense and security studies institute, in 2008. Since the center’s dedication in 1993, more than 5,700 military and civilian officials from more than 100 nations have graduated from resident courses.
