"We must constantly question things that we have routinely been doing to ensure that we are doing the right things and to see if we can do them even better. It is kind of like me always ordering chocolate chip ice cream whenever I visit an ice cream stand -- is that really the flavor that I want to be ordering every time? The same applies to our annual European Command Theater Security Cooperation (TSC) Conference. Are we focused on the right things? Is this the way we want to be conducting the conference every time? Can we make the conference even better?"
INTRODUCTION
These were the words I recently used to challenge the 25 joint officers, among them 13 FAOs, in my Europe Division of the J5 Policy Directorate of US European Command (EUCOM) as we prepared to conduct the command's Theater Security Cooperation Working Group (TSCWG). Theater Security Cooperation is the expression used to describe military to military engagement with other nations. It includes everything from joint exercises, to senior officer visits, to port calls, to train and equip efforts. European Command's (EUCOM) TSC Conference also happens to be the largest gathering of European, Eurasia, and African FAOs from all Services.
The conference was held in 2005 at the Ramstein Air Base Officer's Club, near Kaiserslautern, Germany, 17-21 October. There were more than 400 participants including Defense Attaché Office (DAO) and Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) representation from 90 of the 91 Country Teams in EUCOM's Area of Responsibility (AOR).
The gathering was the biggest EUCOM TSC Conference ever. Indeed, EUCOM's TSC Conference was probably the largest conducted by any Combatant Command. The EUCOM Geographic Combatant Command (GCC) has more than 112,000 forces full-time forward-based and is responsible for a landmass that is 35% of the earth's, with a coastline that comprises 60% of the world's coastline. EUCOM's AOR includes 91 countries, nearly half of the nations represented in the UN General Assembly.
This article will outline how this important EUCOM assembly has improved over the past few years and how it remains perhaps the paramount gathering of FAOs.
WHERE WE WERE
I have participated in four TSC-related conferences at EUCOM. I attended the first as the Army Attaché at US Embassy Copenhagen in March 2002. That conference was held in a single plenary hall at Patch Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. The 2002 meeting was primarily focused on Defense Attaché Offices, with hardly any involvement from EUCOM's Offices of Defense Cooperation, the other key military component of Country Teams in the AOR. In 2002, ODCs had their own separate conference, and unfortunately it actually preceded the policy conference. It was a situation when the Command's TSC execution experts, ODCs, were meeting prior to HQ EUCOM determining execution policy.
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In 2002 EUCOM held completely separate TSC conferences focused on the European and African portions of the AOR with 46 countries in Europe and 45 in Africa. These earlier conferences were exclusively J5 organized and led, with virtually no participation from the other "J-Codes", and hence virtually no "buy-in" from them, from the J2, J3, and J4. In fact, the numbers of contractors at the earlier conferences easily outnumbered other EUCOM staff directorates. While contractors can play an important role in TSC execution, their role in the formulation of policy was questionable.
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In short, there was reason to call into question something that EUCOM had routinely been doing. Essentially it was time to question the repeated ordering of "chocolate chip ice cream."
WHERE WE ARE TODAY
Following the Attaché tour in Copenhagen, my next posting was to the US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, in summer 2002. As Chief of the Europe Division, J5 Policy Directorate, I have been responsible for contributing to policy formulation and implementation via TSC across the European portion of the European Command. This spans 46 countries ranging from Israel to Russia, Iceland to Azerbaijan. Also arriving in 2002 was the new Deputy EUCOM Commander, Gen Chuck Wald and a new J4 International Division Chief, the leader of the command's ODCs. Together, we radically questioned and sought to improve upon the format and goals of EUCOM's critical TSC conference.
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In 2005, senior EUCOM officers were present, and all participants were able to hear from them important "top down" guidance. The EUCOM Deputy Commander, Gen Wald, participated for the third consecutive year. The EUCOM Chief of Staff, J5, J4, and J2 also addressed the conference.
Additionally senior Interagency representatives attended the 2005 assembly. Deputy Assistant Secretaries of Defense for both Europe and Africa, together with the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs, and a senior Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) representative all shared their insights, participated in interactive panel discussions, and provided thoughts from "inside the Beltway."
In what other ways had this year's EUCOM TSC Conference improved?
Now the conference involves the entire EUCOM staff. It is no longer just a J5-organized and led event. Theater Security Cooperation is now a "positive virus" infecting all elements of the command staff from J2 thru J9 actively participating in the planning and execution.
In 2005, all of the Component Commands of EUCOM were actively involved in the conference. They were able to provide necessary reality checks, indicating where they were able to support country objectives and where they were not able to support due to OPTEMPO. They joined in the development of the Country Campaign Plans
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By the way, there were no contractors invited to the 2005 conference. The Command still has an interest in presenting its TSC objectives and goals to the contractor community, but it will do so at a later date, with all contractors being given the same fair chance to hear EUCOM's goals at the same time.
This year's conference had the added bonus of being conducted away from EUCOM HQ, permitting full focusing on the conference at hand. The quality conference site at Ramstein AFB facilitated essential regional break-out sessions -- four for Africa and four for Europe-- permitting smaller group discussion and interchange
Finally, the product of the symposium was no longer just an order of merit list; a result of "gaming the system," divorced from command priorities. This year's products were instead clear command goals reflected in executable, measurable country objectives in Country Campaign Plans. Priority countries in the command received the most attention during the conference. All country plans now capture the "what, how, and why" of EUCOM's TSC goals for a country. They will not only be shared with all EUCOM activity managers, but also with OSD, the Joint Staff, and the Services.
CONCLUSION
In the past three years, the EUCOM TSC Conference has become an extremely valuable forum for the finalization of the country objectives and goals that the Command pursues for the countries of its AOR. It has also become a capstone event for the face-to-face meeting of European, Eurasian, and African FAOs. The face-to-face informal interaction, the dialogue, and the exchange of ideas that occur among FAOs and other stakeholders at European Command's premier TSC event is of great value to EUCOM and to FAOs.
FUTURE
EUCOM can be proud that this conference has become the biggest, busiest, and best to date. As we
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Clearly, there is always room for new TSC ideas and improvements. That said, just questioning something does not always mean you have to change it. Very often the questioning results in an even stronger commitment than before. Take chocolate chip ice cream, for example, despite questioning my choice, it remains the only flavor I ever order.
Editor's note: COL Mike Anderson, currently Europe Division Chief, EUCOM J5, and the senior Army FAO on the EUCOM staff, has been a 48C since 1985. He has earned a Master's degree in International Relations from Columbia University, speaks German and Danish, is a graduate of the George C. Marshall Center's Senior Executive Program and Harvard's Russian-US Senior Officer Course, and has spent more than 17 years on European assignments. His email address is: andersmi@eucom.mil.