International Cooperation With Partner Air Forces

The Air Force faces a challenging environment as it devises an approach to managing security cooperation with partner countries. The important mission of countering terrorist and insurgent groups abroad requires working closely with allies and partner countries to strengthen security. Accordingly, current U.S. defense strategy emphasizes that the U.S. armed forces should do more to work "by, with, and through partners" to accomplish missions.

The U.S. Air Force faces a challenging environment as it devises an approach to managing security cooperation with partner countries. The important mission of countering terrorist and insurgent groups abroad requires working closely with allies and partner countries to strengthen security. Accordingly, current U.S. defense strategy emphasizes that the U.S. armed forces should prepare to do more to work (by, with, and through partners) to accomplish their missions. The U.S. Air Force could benefit from an enhanced process for identifying appropriate capabilities, as well as the ability to match these capabilities to candidate partner air forces and, where appropriate, build these capabilities into capacity through focused security cooperation. It is also important to identify other useful activities from other Services and key allies to enhance capacity-building and synchronize efforts to collectively pursue U.S. objectives. Five focus areas for implementing an enhanced approach to security cooperation are detailed: increased visibility into activities; strengthening processes for planning, evaluation, and resourcing; and creating institutions that treat security cooperation the same as other major Air Force priorities.

The U.S. Air Force has a long history of working with allies and partners in a security cooperation context to build the defense capacities of these nations, acquire and maintain access to foreign territories for operational purposes, and strengthen relationships with partner air forces for mutual benefit. However, it is often difficult to determine whether or how these activities have contributed to the goals and objectives of U.S. national security, DoD, COCOMs, and the services. As is the case throughout DoD, the Air Force currently does not have a comprehensive framework in place by which it can assess the effectiveness of its security cooperation efforts with partner air forces in a deliberate and consistent way. This monograph outlines an assessment framework that can enhance the Air Force's security cooperation efforts in a way that reflects U.S. national security interests, DoD guidance, COCOM requirements, and Air Force global priorities. The document identifies relevant Air Force security cooperation authorities, programs, and key stakeholders for those programs. The proposed assessment framework will allow Air Force planners, strategists, and key policy-makers to see specifically whether Air Force security cooperation programs and activities are achieving the desired effects as defined in the guidance documents.

"U.S. European Command (EUCOM) views building partnerships as its highest theater priority. U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) seeks to build partnerships and partner capacity in the EUCOM area of responsibility. In spite of the potential benefits of USAFE's building-partnership (BP) activities, USAFE's posture and its BP activities do come with a cost. In today's austere fiscal environment, it is appropriate to assess how the United States and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) can build partnerships most efficiently while ensuring that the requirements for maintaining key alliances and partnerships continue to be met. This report characterizes the current policy debate on security cooperation and force posture in Europe through a review of the literature and discussions with key policymakers and legislative officials in Washington, develops a framework to describe the current BP approach and environment for the USAF in Europe, defines several alternative postures for conducting BP activities using a building-block approach to cost out each high-payoff BP activity, and recommends efficiencies to improve the USAF's BP activities in Europe."--Publisher's description.

Working with allies to build their defense capacity, acquire access to their territories for potential operations, and strengthen relationships with their air forces, is an important U.S. Air Force activity. To determine the value of this activity, the authors outline an assessment framework that planners, strategists, and policymakers can use to see whether Air Force security cooperation activities are achieving the desired effects.