DRMI now offers four units of Naval Postgraduate School graduate education credit for our resident courses. To obtain the credit a participant must attend either the Defense Resources Management Course (DRMC), or the International Defense Management Management Course (IDMC), and then pass an exam. (more . . .)

DRMI Continues to Work with Kazakhstan. After a very successful Defense Resources Management Workshop held last year in Astana, the Office of Military Cooperation has requested that DRMI return in April. This time the focus will be on a resources management. This effort will be led by Dr. C. J. LaCivita and Mr Don Bonsper, who will also meet with Kazak officials to discuss the operational concept for the peacekeeping brigade and develop a cost model to support planning and budgeting for the brigade.

DRMI Assists Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq. Over the next several months, DRMI will continue to provide support for MNSTC-I and MNF-I efforts to plan and implement Iraqi MoD and MoI capacity development programs. Our next effort will focus on budget preparation and execution. A workshop on this subject will be presented to Ministry of Interior personnel at the Baghdad Police College during April.

Coming to one of our resident courses? The new Participant Handbook will answer all of your questions regarding directions, accommodations, computer support and much, much more. Click here to view it on line, or Right-Click to download your own copy.

Washington Consensus - Harmful, or not?

The 1990s neoliberal reforms, commonly known as the Washington Consensus, which many Latin American nations implemented, ultimately impacted U.S. national security. Given the rise of leftist regimes in Argentina and Venezuela coupled with the distancing of former allies in Brazil and Chile, we ask whether these reforms, meant to strengthen U.S national security, harmed it instead. (more . . .)

Applying SUCCESS

Ministries of Defense all face the same basic set of management challenges: accountability (tracking defense spending on inputs), efficiency (minimizing the costs of defense activities), and effectiveness (measuring capabilities/outputs/outcomes and tying budgets to performance). A key objective in shifting government’s focus from inputs (buying things) to activities and outputs (doing things) is to improve national security and promote better internal management of defense programs. (more . . .)

Decentralization and Democratic Governance

Fiscal decentralization has come to be seen by some not only as the means for improving resource allocation but as a potential engine for economic growth in developing and transitional economies. Others, however, have argued that Western-based models of expenditure assignment and democratic institutions are ill-suited for conditions in developing and transitional countries, and that decentralization may, in fact, destabilize institutions and encourage rent-seeking behavior. (more . . .)

Spreading the Word Around the Globe:

In the coming months members of the DRMI faculty will be presenting defense defense management courses in El Salvador, Congo, Iraq, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Malaysia. In addition, the DRMI faculty will also be conducting capacity building seminars in Iraq, Kazakstan and Serbia. (more . . .)