PfPC Secretariat Leadership and Mission
The PfPC Secretariat, overseen by a U.S. Executive Director and a German Deputy Executive Director, includes a multinational team comprising international program managers and operations specialists. Collectively, they manage the allocation of organizational and financial support to the PfPC’s multinational working groups and contributions to the Defense Education Enhancement Program (DEEP).
About the Partnership for Peace Consortium
The PfPC is a multinational network of defense academies and security studies institutes united by the core principles of the Partnership for Peace program. The PfPC’s mission is to promote defense education and facilitate multinational solutions to security challenges in the Euro-Atlantic community.
Key Role of George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
The George C. Marshall Center plays a pivotal role in the PfPC by hosting the Secretariat, which is central to the Consortium's operations. The George C. Marshall Center also has a seat on the Consortium's senior governance body, alongside senior representatives from ten other stakeholder nations and the NATO International Staff. Currently, the Marshall Center’s German Deputy Director serves as the PfPC Senior Advisory Council chair, and the Marshall Center’s Director serves as the U.S. delegate on that council. Finally, the Marshall Center also contributes to the PfPC by helping to facilitate publication of the Consortium’s scholarly journal, Connections.
PfPC Mission and Vision
Mission: Strengthen partner defense education and security sectors while fostering a trusted global network of defense educators, research professionals, and security sector practitioners.
Vision: Integrated Euro-Atlantic partners contributing to regional stability through multinational defense education, security sector cooperation, and capacity-building initiatives.
Empowering Working Groups
The PfPC carries out its mission, in part, through stakeholder-funded working groups that operate semi-autonomously. These groups have the authority to define research objectives (with concurrence of the PfPC governance bodies), nominate chairpersons, and manage their own schedules and deliverables. Working groups focus on specific projects within the Consortium's domains, encourage intellectual exploration of regional and historical areas of interest, and create opportunities for informal (Track II) diplomacy.
Defense Education Enhancement Program
DEEP is a joint initiative between the PfPC and NATO, established in 2006 to support the professionalization of military education in partner nations. Through it, subject-matter experts provide direct support to defense education institutions, such as by conducting on-site faculty development workshops and helping those institutions develop modern Professional Military Education (PME) curricula, often using the PfPC-developed reference curricula as a foundation.