Partnership Program

The Pentagon last week issued a policy document outlining how a U.S. state National Guard would enter into a partnership with a foreign military. Specifically, the Dec. 14 memo defines such a "State Partnership Program" like this:

A DoD security cooperation program under which a military-to-military relationship is established between the National Guard of a U.S. State and a partner nation's military forces for the complementary purposes of promoting mutual understanding; interoperability; furtherance of the Combatant Commander's theater security cooperation program objectives by building enduring relationships with, and, to the extent authorized by law, the capacity of, partner nation military forces; and promoting the readiness of U.S. National Guard forces.

Inside the Army reported last month that a debate had begun to emerge within the Pentagon about giving reserve forces unique missions, indicating that an explicit division of labor between the ground service components may be in the works. Specifically:

"We are on a little bit of a broader quest right now" to figure out what should be in the active component and what should be in the reserve component, a defense official told Inside the Army. Unlike the Air Force, the Army does not "have a good way to think about it. They take the [active component] and [reserve component] end strengths as given, then try to build the best AC and the rest goes in RC. It is more art than science," the official said.

As the Army tries to shape its future active and reserve components, the California adjutant general, Maj. Gen. David Baldwin is concerned that the active-duty Army is assuming more missions traditionally carried out by reserve forces. The two-star referred to "poaching" when describing what he perceived to be a trend by the active-duty Army to take these missions, which have included peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and Sinai, according to minutes from a Reserve Forces Policy Board meeting held in September (ITA, Oct. 15).

A National Guard Bureau spokesman declined to say whether the NGB shared Baldwin's position.

The Guard, for its part, is considering what unique missions it might be suited for, with cyberspace operations being a candidate. NGB spokesman Jon Anderson noted that many members of the Guard have strong technical skills gained through private sector job experience that could be put to good use especially in such missions as cyber security.

Unlike Baldwin, Army Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Talley is "not concerned" that the active force will take the missions that Reserve forces would traditionally perform. The issue "really doesn't apply to the Army Reserve component because [the active component] has to come to us for all those enablers," Talley said during a Nov. 14 Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington.

View the full Dec. 14 policy memo.

View more of InsideDefense.com's coverage of Reserve and National Guard issues.