Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany — A new Marshall Center course is examining the why, when and how of a nation’s participation in multinational stability, security, transition and reconstruction operations.

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Marshall Center professor Austrian Brig. Gen. Karl Wohlgemuth speaks on international institutions and stability operations during the Program for Security, Stability, Transition and Reconstruction March 13. The Marshall Center’s newest course focuses on the why, when and how of a nation's participation in multinational stability operations. The first class runs from March 12 to April 1.

(Photo by Sgt. Christopher Allison)

The first class of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies’ three-week Program for Security, Stability, Transition and Reconstruction, or SSTAR, began here March 12 with 43 participants from 34 countries.

Marine General James N. Mattis, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, NATO and Commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command, gave the opening presentation, outlining how stability operations require new thinking and new approaches from the nations and organizations involved.

“Right now world peace seems to be more threatened by unstable parts of the world in a globalized world than by conventional armies attacking in conventional manners,” Mattis said.

“The fact is we have a real enemy and right now uniformed militaries alone cannot take on that enemy and hang onto the values of human rights, toleration and dignity for everyone. We’ve all seen the consequences of weak or failed states, the breakdowns in institutions that lead to ethnic cleansing, civil wars, and havens for radical ideologies. These humanitarian catastrophes eventually feed off themselves and create more problems unless we can do something to restrain them.”

The security problem created by unstable regions cannot be solved by single countries or by military efforts alone, according to the general.

“No single nation can contribute sufficiently to stability and every nation in the free competition in ideas has something to offer,” Mattis said. “We’re going to have to spend some time in environments such as this [course], defining the problem, figuring out what we’re trying to solve before we charge off. We’re going to have to talk about even the definition of stability and security and come up with a common basis on how we approach the problem solving.”

Ultimately, Mattis said, stability operations need to incorporate a comprehensive approach reflected by the course participants themselves: multinational and civil-military.

SSTAR’s focus on the interagency and multinational aspects of stability, security, transition and reconstruction (SSTR) operations addresses “the sticky issues that are vitally important,” according to course director Marine Col. James Howcroft.

“The U.S. right now is working through the issue of interagency coordination and cooperation. How does the military, USAID [the U.S. Agency for International Development], [the Department of] State, the border service and [the Department of] Justice all work together overseas?” Howcroft said. “But in this course we’re taking it one step further by looking at the multinational issue. Not only are we looking at how military and civilian personnel from many different agencies and organizations have to work together, but at how people from different countries have to, when each country, each contributor has their own domestic audience, national interest, rules of engagement and national caveats.”

The three-week course first looks at the need for and challenges of SSTR operations, and then examines the roles of various players, including NGOs and private corporations, and the building of the host nation’s capacity and legitimacy.

In going into conflict zones, the international community is concerned with building not only security, but also stability, Howcroft said.

“That’s why this course is not just about military forces. It’s about all the interagency tools that are needed not only to provide security, but also to build governance, build rule of law, reconstruct the country and help to build a sustainable economy, so that people are provided for and governed by their own government,” Howcroft said.

Deputy course director Army Lt. Col. Chris Cavoli said that SSTAR provides a unique forum for evaluating current practices that are helping to shape policy.

“Stability operations are evolving everyday,” Cavoli said. “Currently there is no interagency doctrine to cover this, and there’s certainly no standard multinational doctrine, let alone a common understanding, so we’re in the listening mode almost as much as the promulgate mode. We’re trying to come to a common understanding among professionals engaged in stability operations about what needs to get done and how we can do it as a partnership.”

SSTAR’s focus on a “whole of government” approach to stability operations is reflected in the multinational and interagency mix of speakers, which is about half military and half civilian and from a number of countries. Speakers are senior strategists and practitioners representing organizations including NATO, the EU and USAID, and with global SSTR experience in places as diverse as Lebanon, the Ivory Coast, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Marshall Center professor Dr. Ann Phillips noted that the course includes a panel of senior government officials from countries that have been the location of SSTR operations. The focus of the panel is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of foreign assistance in stabilization and reconstruction operations, she said.

“We tend to sit back and draw up these elaborate plans of what we’re going to do, but too seldom are the recipients of our assistance in there helping to set up what the most important needs are, what the priorities are, so we want to hear from them,” Phillips said.

The participants in the first class, who represent 15 agencies and organizations and about half of whom have been in stability operations, also bring extensive experience to the course.

“This is a real opportunity for an exchange among professionals, to learn from the experiences of people who have been doing the heavy lifting on the ground,” Howcroft said. “We are looking for participants to return to their countries not only with an idea of why SSTR operations are necessary and how their nations can contribute, but with a network of other professionals around the region that they can call on.”

SSTAR is one of five 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 6,000 military and civilian officials from more than 100 nations have graduated from resident courses.