The Defense Security Cooperation University’s Institute for Security Governance is the Department of Defense’s leading implementer for Institutional Capacity Building (ICB) and one of its primary International Schoolhouses.
OCTOBER 2022 ISSUE
This issue recounts DSCA Director Jim Hursch's fruitful visit to ISG HQ • Applauds ISG's Resident Advisor to Lithuania for receiving the Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service • Welcomes new Africa Regional Program Lead Whitney Grespin and Budget Analyst Lead Angela Eccles • Marks the successful conclusion of the two-year educating-the-educators mobile seminar series on Civil-Military Operations in Ghana • Offers a standing ovation to Emergency Management & Resilience powerhouses, Scott Moreland and Ashley Woodson • Highlights Resident Education contributions in "The Science and Art of Logistics Capacity Building" • Spotlights ICB Advising achievements in "Improving Safety, Security, and Operational Readiness across the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" • Provides updates from ISG HQ
AROUND THE INSTITUTE
DSCA Director Hursch Visits ISG HQ
We were honored to host DSCA Director Mr. James Hursch, along with DSCU President Dr. Celeste Gventer, at ISG headquarters in Monterey in August. In addition to learning more from faculty and staff about the growth and impact of ISG’s work in functional areas such as Cyber and Resilience, Dr. Hursch shared an overview of DSCA’s strategic priorities, including the expanding role that Institutional Capacity Building will play in U.S. defense strategy. Director Hursch was generous with his time at the well-attended ISG Town Hall event, providing insightful responses to questions from ISG colleagues.
AWARDS
ISG Resident Advisor to Lithuania Receives the Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service
ISG Resident Advisor to the Republic of Lithuania, Mr. David Antonik, received the Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service from Vice Minister of Defense Mr. Vilius Semesk earlier this month. Bravo Zulu!
Mr. Antonik deployed to Vilnius, Lithuania in August 2021 to support the Lithuanian Military of Defense on strategic logistics matters. To learn more about Mr. Antonik's background, check out his bio.
ISG WELCOMES
MOBILE EDUCATION
A Successful End to the Two-Year Educating-the-Educators Seminar Series on Civil-Military Operations in Ghana
Mr. Nicholas (Nick) Tomb – a Functional Lead for Security Governance and Civil-Military Relations at the Institute for Security Governance – recently returned from Washington D.C., where he presented on the successful completion of a two-year (2020-2022), in-country Educating-the-Educators Seminar Series for the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to the Bureau for Political-Military Affairs and the Africa Bureau for Regional Security Affairs. As Mr. Tomb reported in his presentation, the goals of the seminar series were to enable the GAF to conduct Civil-Military Operations (CMO) education on its own and to develop a program of instruction tailored to the specific needs of its military.
Violent extremist organizations continue to proliferate throughout the Sahel in Africa, committing acts of terrorism and destabilizing the region. Sahel violence threatens many West African coastal stakes like Ghana. Burkina Faso, to Ghana’s immediate north, has suffered devastating attacks causing the civilian population to lose faith in the government and resulting in a military coup in January 2022. Cote d’Ivoire and Togo, to Ghana’s west and east, have also sustained significant attacks, resulting in Togo declaring a state of emergency in June 2022. In response, the GAF has requested U.S. assistance to build the institutional capacity to conduct CMO and civic action programs to promote civil-military relations with local populations and enable future military operations.
Civil-Military Operations, by definition, are activities undertaken by a military commander to establish, maintain, influence, or exploit relations between military forces, governmental and non-governmental civilian organizations, civil authorities, and the civilian populace in an operational area to facilitate military operations and to achieve operational objectives. Put another way, CMOs are activities to improve perceptions of the military and win the “hearts and minds” of civilian populations. The intent of the seminar series was to build the human capital and institutional capacity of the GAF, and therefore more widely incorporate CMO principles throughout the force.
The Educating-the-Educator model involves a progression in which ISG educators teach a class of students, followed by student-instructors co-teaching with an ISG educator, followed by the student-instructors taking over as the educators, and finally delivering the curriculum to future cohorts of students independently. Over the course of the seminar series, 161 GAF personnel participated in six CMO courses. Of those, 24 were selected as student-instructors, and 23 student-instructors successfully completed the program of instruction. GAF student-instructors showed impressive initiative, tailoring the ISG curriculum with updated content, activities, local examples, photos, and context.
Mr. Tomb shared key lessons learned such as the importance of a Partner Nation’s political will and the capacity for those involved to absorb and implement the training. He further noted how valuable it was to have a local Partner Nation “champion” involved, who saw the program through to its successful conclusion. Mr. Tomb also highlighted the value of including local, influential, and well-respected personnel as part of the faculty composition.
With respect to potential areas of improvement, Mr. Tomb pointed out that while Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) components were indeed incorporated into the curriculum, there could have been more robust involvement of women in the training as well as more of an emphasis on WPS principles and the important role that women can play in CMO.
The CMO Educating-the-Educators Seminar Series for the Ghana Armed Forces was a great success. It built the institutional capacity of the GAF to promulgate CMO principles throughout its force, which will enable it to deploy forces in the defense of the country while enhancing civil military relations with the civilian populations living near the northern border. The engagement directly supported strategic goals laid out in the interim U.S. National Security Strategy and USAFRICOM Theater campaign plans. Finally, its successful implementation strengthened relations with an important Partner Nation.
STANDING OVATION
Scott Moreland & Ashley Woodson, EM&R
The Emergency Management and Resilience (EM&R) Functional Area, as it exists today at the Institute for Security Governance, emerged in 2017 out of a series of changes made at both the DoD level and the early stages of ISG’s transition from the Naval Postgraduate School to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. At the heart of EM&R Team are Scott Moreland and Ashley Woodson. Here’s an opportunity to learn more about this dynamic duo, their professional pathways, and their motivations around the important work of Emergency Management and Resilience.
What was your path to this role?
Scott: I was leading the Security Cooperation Exercises program for the Center for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR). Shortly after the transition from CCMR to ISG in 2018, I took leadership of the EM&R function, and we adopted the “Emergency Management and Resilience” moniker. With Matt Vaccaro’s promotion within the ISG leadership, we incorporated his Team’s reimbursable disaster management work into our portfolio. This was really the point at which Ashley and I came together as a faculty Team, and we’ve been working together to evolve the function ever since.
Ashley: I started in 2013, in an administrative role, assisting with logistics and operations of Resident and Mobile Education courses. Over the years, my responsibilities have expanded and provided me with the opportunity to gain experience coordinating and building everything from course agendas to overseeing operations of the Emergency Management and Resilience Functional Area. I am grateful for all the knowledge I have gained, and I am really excited about this growth opportunity, with many thanks to the incredible leadership of Matt Vaccaro and Scott Moreland!
What are you passionate about in your work?
Scott: I am most passionate about helping leaders, planners, and operators understand why emergency management and resilience should be a key defense priority. I did not come to lead this function as an emergency management expert. After just a few months of working with the highly capable, passionate, and hard-working Team I inherited with the function, my eyes were opened to why disaster management is vitally important to the United States, DoD, our Partners, and our collective security interests. We were already assisting Partners in identifying and acquiring the knowledge and capabilities they needed to respond to strategic competitors who aimed to impose malign influence, exploit Partner governance, and create dangerous vulnerabilities and co-dependencies. We are now exploring how climate change is creating existential dilemmas for some of our Partners and de-stabilizing regions affected by drought, rising sea levels, and increased severity and frequency of national disasters.
Ashley: I really enjoy working with my Functional Area Team and being intimately involved in all the processes to make our projects run smoothly. I most enjoy the execution phase of events, meeting the participants, and witnessing their thirst for learning and their joy in making meaningful connections with us and with other participants. I am endlessly fascinated by the multi-faceted topic of emergency management. I enjoy exploring the many cascading effects that occur in an emergency situation and thinking creatively about ways to coordinate relief most efficiently between various agencies. I am especially passionate about climate security and am looking forward to the exciting opportunity of creating a MET course and content to expand this portion of our portfolio.
Describe an Aha! Moment or Change Management success.
Scott: Our current Ukraine Resilience work has served as a powerful model and pilot for future resilience work. With assistance from our Resident Advising/MoDA Team, we have been able to adjust and accelerate our resilience capacity building engagements and find creative ways to help Ukraine understand its current resilience posture so that they can prioritize the improvements that need to be made both in the immediate term and in post-conflict recovery. This is a superb example of how MoDAs can leverage ISG’s periodic engagement mechanisms and functional expertise, while serving as essential interlocutors to both Partner Nation stakeholders and other capacity-building support providers to ensure our collective efforts are unified, coordinated, and efficient.
Ashley: In the early days of the pandemic, the Emergency Management & Resilience Team quickly pivoted by May 2020 to execute virtual engagements with global partners. The pandemic has really shed light on the importance of our work and the tangible benefits of preparedness and resilience. I am incredibly grateful to work with a talented, passionate, and agile Team, who are genuinely interested in helping countries tackle the increasing challenges in this field!
What is one "fun" thing we need to know about you?
Scott: I am a wine enthusiast. I come from a grape growing and wine-making family. Throughout high school, our house was attached to a winery in Missouri, where my dad served as the winemaker. My grandpa grew concord grapes in Missouri and my uncles were commercial wine-grape growers in Santa Maria and Paso Robles from the late seventies through about 2015.
Ashley: Being in nature is my ultimate happy place. I became certified in scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, have hiked Mt. Fuji in Japan, and most recently, I hiked 80 miles of the Portuguese coastal route of the Camino de Santiago, the historical pilgrim route in Northern Spain.
Scott Moreland is the Functional Lead for the Emergency Management and Resilience (EM&R) Team and a Lecturer at ISG. Prior to his current assignment at ISG, Mr. Moreland led the Security Cooperation Exercises program for the Center for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR). Mr. Moreland also served as an Army officer in both the Active and Reserve components. He retired from the Army Reserves in 2011. His last military deployment was as a civil-military operations Team leader in the Multinational Division Center-South in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Mr. Moreland is a conversant Spanish speaker. He earned a Master of Arts in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at American Military University and a bachelor's degree in Educational Studies at University of Missouri.
Ashley Woodson is the Operations Manager for the Emergency Management & Resilience (EM&R) Functional Area at ISG. Prior to this, Ms. Woodson served as the Associate Operations Manager for the Joint Foreign Area Officer (FAO) Program at the US Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Her previous area of focus was coordination of skills sustainment courses for senior FAOs in Monterey and abroad. Ms. Woodson holds a Master of Arts in Security Studies with a focus on Stabilization and Reconstruction from the Naval Postgraduate School, a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the California State University of Monterey Bay, and a Certificate in Urban Sustainable Agriculture from the University of the District of Columbia. She and her husband reside in Alexandria, Virginia.
We are very grateful to have Scott and Ashley as Teammates and offer them a well-deserved Standing Ovation.
RESIDENT EDUCATION
The Science and Art of Logistics Capacity Building
The Institute for Security Governance (ISG) recently conducted a two-week Logistics Capacity Building (LCB) Resident Course at ISG headquarters in Monterey, California. The course focused on logistics management concepts to build and strengthen Partner Nation efforts to better assess their logistics requirements and implement lessons-learned within the unique context of their country. Course instruction emphasized the necessity to integrate other institutional capabilities such as strategy, policy, and plans; human resource management; and resource management into logistics requirements. Pedagogically, the course featured diverse learning methodologies including case study presentations, lectures, small group exercises/activities, and structured discussions. This inaugural course was led by ISG’s Senior Lecturer for Logistics Institutional Capacity Building, Dr. Ryan Moses, and was supported by various subject matter experts.
By definition, “Logistics is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling procedures for the efficient and effective transportation and storage of goods including services, and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements.” Dr. Moses explained to course participants that current challenges within the strategic, operational, and tactical environment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic have greatly contributed to the varying degrees of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA). He also stressed the “…imperative for logisticians and other practitioners to effectively problematize while navigating the current VUCA environment in order to improve Logistics Institutional Capacity (ICB), interoperability, and resourcing strategy.”
While participants were presented with various theories and approaches to logistics management, Dr. Moses encouraged course attendees to consider more than just technical proficiencies and principled practices, stating:
“This also includes understanding ‘The Science of Logistics’—to calculate, determine, predict, and support requirements—as well as ‘The Art of Logistics’ to help answer how logistics sustainment can be employed in a dynamic and nebulous environment.”
He explained to the class that “Greater levels of appreciation and understanding can be gained using knowledge innovation, while operating within indeterminate zones of practice, or when dealing with emerging situations that have not been previously experienced. This is especially important in resource-constrained environments marked with increasing levels of VUCA."
Dr. Moses’s personal approach to instruction also employs both science and art, as evidenced by his proficiency in presenting complex information, while simultaneously facilitating engaged, cross-cultural discussion and active participation. Participants were provided take-home resources and support plans that can be tailored to their country and added to their “kit bags,” serving as a catalyst to transform classroom learning into real-world application and impact.
The participants, who hailed from Croatia, Guyana, Indonesia, Lebanon, Malawi, Niger, and Pakistan, represent the higher echelons of their national security governance structures, and hold ranks spanning from Lieutenant Colonel/Commander (O-5) through Major General/Rear Admiral (0-8), and their civilian equivalents.
The topics presented during the course were manifold and included:
- Role of a professional logistics force from a public administration perspective
- Elements and Importance of a nation's Defense Logistics Management System
- Policy Entrepreneurship: Influence in support of a Nation’s Defense Logistics Management System
- Military support to Civil Authority Roles and Missions from a Logistics Management and Civil-Military Relations perspective
- Logistics Institutional Capacity Building, Strategy Development & Assessments
- Role of Operational Readiness Reporting on Logistics ICB
- Logistics Management Requirements Forecasting, Strategic & Operational Planning, from a functional area perspective: Supply Chain Management, Maintenance & Materiel Management, Distribution & Transportation Management, Operational Contracting Support/Logistics Services, and Health Service Support
- Logistics Special Topics: Role of Cyber Domain on Logistics Management, Impacts of Outsourcing on Logistics ICB and Readiness, Role of Human Capital Management across the Defense Logistics Enterprise
- Adaptive Leadership in support of Logistics Institutional Capacity Building
- Logistics ICB Course Exercise
The objective of this course is to enable participants to understand and apply logistics management concepts and principles to their country’s specific needs. Participants are equipped with the foundational building blocks to define and discuss the relationship among logistics management, resource management, and human resource management in support of Institutional Capacity Building (ICB), as well as to understand the importance of continuous assessment of logistics management functions and institutions. Finally, by the end of the course, participants should be fluent in the principles of civilian control of the military and its impact on logistics management and be able to describe the impact of law/military judicial systems on the practice of institutional logistics management for a national security force.
The Logistics Capacity Building Resident Course is programmed annually and will no doubt continue to provide a solid working foundation for participants to adapt and implement.
ICB ADVISING
Jordanian Armed Forces Munitions Management Assessment: Improving Safety, Security, and Operational Readiness across the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Driven by a national mandate to improve military readiness and to increase its ability to quickly defend the borders of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Institute for Security Governance and the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF) Military Ammunition Command recently completed a ten-month Munitions Management Assessment (hereinafter Munitions Assessment) and developed a Munitions Infrastructure Master Plan (IMP) to improve the safety, security, and operational effectiveness of the country’s munitions management processes. This action was in response to a 2021 JAF request for ISG’s evaluation of the JAF’s current munitions material management practices. ISG developed a JAF Munitions Assessment Technical Approach, leveraging the same Lines of Effort associated with the ongoing ISG program to support Logistics Modernization across the JAF, and worked through BG Ali Al Kuson, Director, Capability Development Department (CDD) and Colonel Helalat Ismail, Chief, Combat Capability Development Branch to validate that the approach met the Director of Planning and Organization’s (DPO) guidance. ISG Jordan Country Program Coordinator Chuck Hudson said,
“While this was an emergent request to assess JAF Munitions Command processes and practices, we wanted to ensure we used the same assessment frameworks that we have used with the CDD in the past and that we reinforce the logistics concepts that we are working to institutionalize across the JAF.”
In cooperation with ISG, the JAF established a Munitions Assessment Working Group to execute the Munitions Assessment Technical Approach to determine how the JAF currently performs munitions planning, procurement, consumption, stock positioning, physical inventory validation, disposition, and munitions life-cycle management. ISG Jordan Logistics Lead Tom Traaen emphasized, “Critical to our approach was that in addition to conducting the assessment, we also wanted to train JAF officers to be able to conduct similar assessments in the future.”
The first phase of the assessment included an inspection of all the Military Ammunition Command ordnance warehouses situated across the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. ISG utilized a “train the trainer” concept during the initial inspections so that their JAF counterparts would learn how to conduct the warehouse assessments and how to appropriately document results, allowing the JAF to then constitute their own teams to complete the rest of the warehouse assessments independently. “We did spot checks on the inspections done by the JAF teams and they did an excellent job taking the information we provided them and then replicating the same quality on the rest of the warehouses,” said Jeff Rathbun, ISG Logistics Subject Matter Expert.
The second phase, Inventory Control and Material Management, assessed all functional areas of ordnance life-cycle management, and included mapping of 12 key ammunition management processes. The ISG team worked with the officers from the Military Ammunition Command to develop a plan to improve management processes and trained them to use Microsoft Project to allow BG Mohammad Al Azzam Commander, Military Ammunition Command to monitor progress.
Following completion of the Munitions Assessment, the Military Ammunition Command and ISG collaboratively developed a Munitions IMP. In addition to increasing efficiency and enabling the Military Ammunition Command to achieve internationally accepted standards for storage utilization, the IMP will help shape JAF decisions regarding which current warehouses require rehabilitation and which warehouses should be taken out of service. Additionally, the IMP includes a plan to build new warehouses taking into account explosive arcs so that they are positioned to not encroach on population centers, industry, religious, and cultural sites. Major Ibrahim Alshama, the Munition Assessment Working Group Lead, commented that “The work accomplished over the last several months was very important. It has shown where we can improve our support to JAF soldiers in a much safer and efficient way.”
BG Al-Azzam stated, “Our work with the ISG team during the Munitions Assessment has made great strides towards realizing the JAF Chairman, Major General Yousef Huneiti’s, vision to raise JAF readiness and be able to quickly defend the borders of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The IMP provides a way ahead for the Military Ammunition Command to efficiently carry out our critical role in defending the security of the Jordanian people. I am proud of our combined efforts.”
The Munitions Assessment is just the latest in a growing list of collaborative efforts between the JAF, the Royal Jordanian Air Force, and ISG. ISG Regional Program Lead, Mr. Wade Evans, stated “The Munitions Assessment results are indicative of our highly cooperative relationship with our Jordanian partners. We are honored that the DPO would look to us to help with this critically important effort. The CDD continues to lead JAF efforts to institutionalize a rigorous assessment framework into JAF decision making. This effort is just another positive step as we work with the JAF and RJAF to modernize their processes to meet the Chairman’s objectives.”
HQ UPDATES
Publication Alert: Dr. Whitney Grespin's Book Review in Parameters
ISG Africa Regional Program Lead Dr. Whitney Grespin reviews Benedict Wilkinson's Scripts of Terror: The Stories Terrorists Tell Themselves (Oxford University Press, 2020) in the 2022 Autumn issue of The U.S. Army War College Quarterly, Parameters. Check it out at the link. Kudos to Whitney!
Heron Spotting
The Heron is our organization’s unofficial mascot, roaming the ISG lawn looking for moles and nesting on nearby Lake Del Monte. Herons are also symbols of partnership, exploration, intelligence, guidance, determination, and transformation—all of which ISG embodies in the work we do.
Working with Us
ISG is hiring! Working with ISG brings you into a rich community of individuals striving to address emergent security challenges and grow global partnerships through Institutional Capacity Building. Check out the exciting opportunities to Join Our Team.
The ISG Heron Archive
If you are interested in previous issues of The ISG Heron, check out The ISG Heron Archive. Please continue spreading the word for us by signing up to receive The ISG Heron each quarter, visiting us on the web or following us on LinkedIn.