General Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reminds us: “We have an obligation to protect the American people regardless of the enemy. In this case, COVID-19 is the enemy.”  COVID-19 is straining health, economic, social, and political structures around the globe. This is reshaping security dynamics at the national, regional, and inter-regional level in a host of ways, some of which are still unclear and evolving.

What are the security implications of COVID-19 for the U.S. Department of Defense? To address this urgent question, the DoD’s five Regional Centers collaborated to produce an assessment and provide four sets of actionable policy recommendations, which we presented to the Office of the Secretary of Defense in an Executive Summary. 

The Regional Centers are:

• Africa Center for Strategic Studies
• Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies
• George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
• Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies
• William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies

These centers are able to leverage their regional access, convening authority, alumni networks, online outreach, and expert faculty to share lessons learned to enable proactive responses to support, inform, and strengthen defense sector security cooperation...”

This article reflects the views of the author and are not necessarily the official policy of the United States, Germany, or any other governments.