Information Paper
National Guard State Partnership Program

The National Guard provides unique capacity building capabilities to Combatant Commanders and U.S. Ambassadors via 56 comprehensive partnerships between U.S. states and partner nations.  The State Partnership Program directly supports the broad national interests and security cooperation goals of the United States by engaging partner nations via military, socio-political, and economic conduits at the local, state, and national levels.  The program’s public diplomacy effectiveness lies in its ability to leverage the full breadth and depth of U.S. defense and interagency capabilities from within the state-country relationship.

The State Partnership Program evolved from a 1993 European Command decision to set up the Joint Contact Team Program (JCTP) in the Baltics with reserve component Soldiers and Airmen.  At the time, it was believed reserve component personnel would present a less provocative posture to the new Russian Federation.  A subsequent National Guard Bureau proposal to pair state National Guards with the countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania formally initiated the program.  Since then, the program has grown far beyond JCTP and is now a key US security cooperation tool, facilitating mutual cooperation across all aspects of international civil-military affairs.

The goals of the program reflect an evolving international affairs mission for the National Guard emphasizing its unique state-federal and civil-military characteristics to interact with both the active and reserve forces of foreign nations, interagency partners, and international non-governmental organizations.  The value of the SPP lies in its ability to concentrate a small component of the U.S. defense structure—a state’s National Guard—on a single country or region in support of U.S. Government policies.  This concentrated focus supports the development of long term personal relationships and interagency coordination mechanisms that would not otherwise exist.  The optimum SPP partnership is one in which: the partner nation professes genuine interest in partnership; U.S. national and theater security cooperation objectives are satisfied; the force protection risk is acceptable; a minimum of additional resources is required to execute engagement; and National Guard core competencies, particularly homeland defense and support to civil authority are fully incorporated.

States and their partners participate in a broad range of strategic security cooperation activities to include homeland defense/security, disaster response/mitigation, consequence/crisis management, interagency cooperation, border/port/aviation security, combat medical, fellowship-style internships, and bilateral familiarization events that lead to training and exercise opportunities.  All activities are coordinated through the Combatant Commanders, U.S. Ambassadors’ country teams, and other agencies as appropriate to ensure National Guard cooperation is tailored to meet U.S. and international partners’ objectives.

U.S. EUROPEAN COMMAND (USEUCOM) – 26 Partnership

U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND (USCENTCOM) – 6 Partnerships

U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND (USSOUTHCOM) – 20 Partnerships

U.S. PACIFIC COMMAND (USPACOM) – 4 Partnerships

National Guard Bureau J-5 International Affairs Division (NGB J-5 IA), 703-607-2816, www.ngb.army.mil/ia/, Revised 1 Jan 2007