In the past month, the National Intelligence University ran two very successful
programs: the 20th iteration of the International Intelligence Fellows Program,
and the second FVEY Certificate in Intelligence Studies – China.
The
IIFP brought 21 senior military and intelligence officials from 18 nations to
Washington, D.C., for two and a half weeks to discuss intelligence support to
combating terrorism. This program certainly achieved its purpose: to facilitate
regional military and security cooperation by providing the participants with a
forum to express concerns, discuss ideas and find solutions to regional
counterterrorism problems.
The
fellows received a strategic overview of how the U.S. intelligence community
manages CT issues by combining NIU faculty-led academic seminars and
discussions with site visits to the State Department, the National
Counterterrorism Center, the Defense Combating Terrorism Center, and the
Pentagon to meet with senior intelligence leaders. NIU also arranged a trip to
Norfolk, Va., for the fellows to visit the Maritime Intelligence Fusion Center,
Naval Station Norfolk, and the Tidewater Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The
IIFP concluded with an executive session during which the fellows not only
identified a need to cooperate in a manner that takes into account current
international CT shortcomings, but also devised opportunities for expanding
cooperation. They worked out very specific approaches to these issues: creating
multinational training opportunities, conducting more joint exercises and
building analytical expertise through exchange programs.
The
China certificate was an intensive one-month course designed to familiarize
students from “Five Eyes” nations – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United
Kingdom and United States – with China’s
foreign policy, strategic culture, and defense and military policy.
Both
programs directly supported DIA’s strategic objective to strengthen existing
relationships, and to build new, mutually beneficial ones with knowledgeable
foreign partners in order to enhance perspectives, leverage resources and limit
intelligence shortfalls. They also served as an academic catalyst for national
and international intelligence community engagement. NIU hailed this particular
certificate course as contributing significantly to DIA’s new efforts to expand
Five Eyes cooperation.
The
IIFP students concluded that establishing genuine trust amongst international
partners is the key to improved cooperation – this will pave the way for a
unified, global initiative which will take into account important cultural
differences, and will encourage governments to adopt a proactive, rather than
reactive, attitude towards terrorism. The IIFP and FVEY certificate program
successfully supported continued engagement between partner nations and NIU,
which the university considers crucial to strengthening and expanding
international partnerships.