Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kellie Arakawa
Cooperation, cross-community education and maritime strategy were the central themes that resonated throughout this year’s U.S. Navy Stability and Security Conference, hosted by the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction Studies (CSRS) Jan. 30-31 in Arlington, Va.
CSRS is an institute at NPS that focuses on educating organizations that contribute to international reconstruction and stabilization efforts through courses, workshops, conferences, exercises and research initiatives.
The January conference marked the second time CSRS collaborated with the Strategy and Concepts Branch of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations for Information, Plans and Strategy (OPNAV N3/N5) to address stability and reconstruction issues.
Approximately 230 participants from the Armed Forces, government civilian agencies, foreign governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and international governmental organizations (IGOs) attended the conference, which featured panel discussions with NPS President Dan Oliver, Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif. 17th District) and 11 NPS faculty and staff.
Six NPS students from the School of International Graduate Studies (SIGS) and Graduate School of Operational and Information Sciences were also in attendance.
Participants began each day in plenary and then later attended a discussion of their choice, which included topics such as provincial reconstruction teams, information management, Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, conflict prevention and naval forces in stability operations.
The keynote speaker, Vice Adm. John Morgan, the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for OPNAV N3/N5, outlined the details of the military’s new maritime strategy, “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower,” which was first presented by the Chief of Naval Operations, Commandant of the Marine Corps and Commandant of the Coast Guard at the International Seapower Symposium on Oct. 17, 2007.
The document serves as a unified strategy between the three sea services and outlines the importance of the military’s sea power and partnerships, which are crucial to resolving current wars and preventing future global conflict.
“The new maritime strategy has a sentence in it that I think is very important: ‘the prevention of wars is as important as winning wars,’” Oliver said.
“This conference and CSRS are doing what that strategy lays out in terms of reaching toward what Adm. Mullen called a ‘1,000 Ship Navy,’” he continued. “I think it’s right in the center of what we ought to be doing for our part in the long war.”
The strategy also states that trust and cooperation among nations must be built over time. While maritime forces are able to surge when necessary to respond to crises, mutual respect and understanding among participants cannot be suddenly called upon.
Matthew Vaccaro, the CSRS Program Director, moderated the first panel discussion, “Working in the Same Space: Understanding Each Other,” which featured Oliver as a representative of the Navy. The discussion focused on developing a greater understanding of the capabilities, organizational behaviors and cultures of the primary actors in stabilization and reconstruction efforts.
Farr served on a VIP panel discussion with Ambassador John Herbst, Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization for the U.S. Department of State, to discuss the ways in which the government is coordinating efforts among various departments for stability operations.
James Wirtz, Interim Dean of SIGS, moderated a plenary discussion about maritime capabilities for stability and security operations. The panelists were flag officers from each of the three sea services who spoke in depth about their respective branches in relation to conflict prevention and the new maritime strategy.
Oliver felt the CSRS conference was a vital opportunity for the key practitioners in stability and reconstruction efforts to network and establish relationships prior to conducting operations.
“Once disaster strikes, it’s too late to get to know people,” he explained.
While it is difficult to measure tangible results from the conference, Vaccaro said the effectiveness of the event is ultimately dependent upon how participants implement new information and ideas, as well as how well they follow up with the relationships they established.
“We are very hopeful that the participants are able to continue to follow up with each other and create wonderful outcomes from our two-day event,” he added.
CSRS is unique, because it focuses on cross-community education, which is not typically a concentration found among organizations that focus on stability and reconstruction operations.
“It was important for CSRS to convene this conference, because nobody else was doing it,” Vaccaro stated.
“Events like this are so important, because the world that we have today and the world that we’re going to have is complicated, where there are many things happening at once,” he said.
“We’re doing disaster relief at the same time that we’re doing counterterrorism and trying to strengthen our partnerships with foreign governments. All these things are happening at the same time in a very complicated battle space where there are NGOs working alongside military and government civilians…it compels us to get together, understand each other and improve our processes before we respond to the next disaster,” Vaccaro explained.
“We know the next disaster is coming,” he continued. “We don’t know when, where or what, but we do know all the people and organizations that are going to be there.”
