State Partnership Program
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The National Guard State Partnership Program (SPP) was established in 1993 in response to the radically changed political-military situation following the collapse of Communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
The SPP was established following the National Guard Bureau's proposal in the spring of 1993 to pair State National Guards with the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The NGB proposal was prompted by CINCEUR's Jan 93 decision to staff the Military Liaison Teams (MLTs) in the Baltics with Reserve Component personnel, in order to avoid sending a provocative signal to the Russian Federation that could have occurred had active duty soldiers been assigned. The SPP thus began as a bilateral military-to-military contact program to engage the countries of central and Eastern Europe, and is a direct outgrowth of US European Command's Joint Contact Team Program (JCTP). This program has grown far beyond JCTP and is now a key security cooperation tool, facilitating interaction in all aspects of civil-military cooperation.
The program links U.S. states with partner countries for the purpose of supporting the security cooperation objectives of the Combatant Commander. The program's goals reflect an evolving international affairs mission for the National Guard using the unique civil-military nature of the Guard to interact with both active and reserve forces of foreign countries. The State Partners actively participate in a host of engagement activities ranging from bilateral familiarization and could lead to training exercises opportunities, fellowship-style internships, and civic leader visits and medical events. All activities are coordinated through the Theater Combatant Commander and the US Ambassadors' country teams, and other agencies as appropriate, to ensure that National Guard support is tailored to meet both US and country objectives.
The value of the SPP is its ability to focus the attention of a small part of the Department of Defense (DoD)—a State National Guard—with a single country or region in support of US Government policies. This concentrated focus allows for the development of long term personal relationships and a mechanism to catalyze support from outside the DoD which otherwise would not occur but nevertheless complements US policy. The optimum SPP partnership is one in which: the Host Nation professes genuine interest in Partnership; US and Theater engagement objectives are satisfied; the Force Protection risk is acceptable; a minimum of additional resources is required to execute engagement; and National Guard core engagement competencies, particularly military support to civil authority (MSCA), and national defense are heavily incorporated.
Today, 48 U.S. states, two territories, and the District of Columbia are partnered with 63 partner affiliations around the world supporting Geographic Combatant Commands and Chiefs of Mission engagement goals and objectives.
Because of budgetary constraints in today's economy, there are "partnership opportunities" for service clubs, faith-based groups and non-governments organizations (NGO's), to provide logistical support and funding**. Supporting the State Partnership Program comes from many agencies and are coordinated with the help of The Humanitarian Network (www.thehumanitariannetwork.org). Examples of partnership opportunities can be found at www.friendsoflithuania.org, and www.amigosdeperu.org. If organizations are interested in finding out about these programs they should make contact through the above websites.
[edit] Partnerships
Alabama – Romania
Alaska – Mongolia
Arizona – Kazakhstan
Arkansas – Guatemala
California – Nigeria
California – Ukraine
Colorado – Slovenia
Colorado – Jordan
Connecticut – Uruguay
Delaware- Trinidad & Tobago
Florida – Guyana
Florida – Venezuela
Florida - Regional Security System
Georgia – Republic of Georgia
Guam – Philippines
Hawaii – Indonesia
Idaho - Cambodia
Illinois – Poland
Indiana – Slovakia
Iowa – Kosovo
Kansas – Armenia
Kentucky – Ecuador
Louisiana – Uzbekistan
Louisiana – Belize
Maine – Montenegro
Maryland – Bosnia-Herzegovina
Maryland – Estonia
Massachusetts – Paraguay
Michigan – Latvia and Liberia (Armed Forces of Liberia) in October 2009[1]
Minnesota – Croatia
Mississippi – Bolivia
Missouri – Panama
Montana – Kyrgyzstan
Texas – Czech Republic
Nevada – Turkmenistan
New Hampshire – El Salvador
New Jersey – Albania
New York – South Africa
North Carolina – Botswana
North Carolina – Moldova
North Dakota – Ghana
Ohio – Serbia
Ohio – Hungary
Oklahoma – Azerbaijan
Oregon – Bangladesh
Pennsylvania – Lithuania
Puerto Rico – Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico – Honduras
Rhode Island – Bahamas
South Dakota – Suriname
Tennessee – Bulgaria
Texas – Czech Republic
Texas – Republic of Chile
Utah – Morocco
Vermont – Senegal
Vermont – Republic of Macedonia
Virginia – Tajikistan
Washington – Thailand
Washington DC – Jamaica
West Virginia – Peru
Wisconsin – Nicaragua
Wyoming – Tunisia
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Introduction to Security Cooperation
- [The Humanitarian Network www.thehumanitariannetwork.org]
- National Guard Bureau SPP News Archives, [1]
Public Law 111-84 section 1210
Directive Type Memorandum 11-010 of 2011<br)
