Ali Ahmad Jalali is an Afghan politician, diplomat, and academic. Jalali served as the Minister of Interior from January 2003 to September 2005. He has also been a distinguished professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. In August 2021, amid the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government, Jalali was rumored to become the leader of the Taliban-controlled interim Afghan government, which he has denied on Twitter as "fake news."
The East–West Center (EWC), or the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States as part of Cold War diplomatic efforts.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) is an agency within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) which provides financial and technical assistance, transfer of defense materiel, training and services to allies, and promotes military-to-military contacts.
Geoffrey Kemp is a British-American academic and writer on international relations. He is the Director of Regional Strategic Programs at the Center for the National Interest, and has held posts in academia and in the U.S. Government.
The Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies is a U.S. Department of Defense institute that officially opened Sept. 4, 1995, in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Center addresses regional and global security issues, inviting military and civilian representatives of the United States and Asia-Pacific nations to its comprehensive program of executive reeducation and workshops, both in Hawaii and throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Lieutenant General (retd) Abdulla Shamaal MA MSc ndu psc is the former Chief of Defence Force (CDF) of Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF). General Shamaal was appointed to the post of Chief of Defence Force on 11 December 2018 by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and served until 17 November 2023. Shamaal was trained in various military institutions such as the United States Army Infantry School in Fort Benning, the Pakistan Military Academy and the Defence Services Staff College in India. Shamaal was previously discharged from service in November 2013 but was reinstated in December 2018 following High Court verdict that his discharge was unlawful. He has also held various Senior Command, Staff and Instructional appointments during his career.
The United StatesForeign Military Financing (FMF) program provides grants and loans to friendly foreign governments to fund the purchase of American weapons, defense equipment, services and training. The program was established through the 1976 Arms Export Control Act and is overseen by the Office of Security Assistance within the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs of the United States Department of State and executed by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) of the United States Department of Defense. The program's stated aims are to be promote U.S. interests by "ensuring coalition partners and friendly partner governments are equipped and trained to pursue common security objectives by contributing to regional and global stability, strengthening military support for democratically-elected governments, fighting the War on Terror, and containing other transnational threats including trafficking in narcotics, weapons and persons."
The George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies is a bi-national United States Department of Defense and Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany) security and defense studies institute. When the Marshall Center was founded in 1993, its mission was to create a more stable security environment by advancing democratic institutions and relationships, especially in the field of defense; promoting active, peaceful, security cooperation; and enhancing enduring partnerships among the nations of North America, Europe, and Eurasia. As of Oct. 1, 2014, the Marshall Center's regional mission changed to a transnational one based on an Office of the Secretary of Defense directive to change from a European to a global participants' base.
David William Barno is a retired lieutenant general of the United States Army. He was commander of Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.
The Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California is a school focusing on homeland security education.
A foreign area officer (FAO) is a commissioned officer from any of the six branches of the United States Armed Forces who is a regionally focused expert in political-military operations. Such officers possess a unique combination of strategic focus and regional expertise, with political, cultural, sociological, economic, and geographic awareness. Foreign language proficiency is necessary in at least one of the dominant languages in their specified region.
In the United States, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs or ASD (ISA) is the principal advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (USD (P)) and the United States Secretary of Defense on international security strategy and policy on issues of Department of Defense (DoD) interest related to the governments and defense establishments of the nations and international organizations of Europe (including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the Middle East, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. The ASD (ISA) also oversees security cooperation programs and foreign military sales programs in these regions. Despite the broad title of the office, the ASD (ISA) does not develop policy related to Asia, the Pacific region, Latin America, or South America.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) is self-described as "a U.S. Department of Defense institution established and funded by Congress for the study of security issues relating to Africa and serving as a forum for bilateral and multilateral research, communication, and exchange of ideas involving military and civilian participants."
The Partnership for Peace Consortium is a network of over 800 defense academies and security studies institutes across 60 countries. Founded in 1998 during the NATO Summit, the PfPC was chartered to promote defense institution building and foster regional stability through multinational education and research, which the PfPC accomplishes via a network of educators and researchers. It is based at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. According to the PfPC Annual Report of 2012, in 2012 eight hundred defense academies and security studies institutes in 59 countries worked with the PfPC in 69 defense education/defense institution building and policy-relevant events. The Consortium publishes an academic quarterly journal CONNECTIONS in English and Russian. The journal is run by an international Editorial Board of experts and is distributed to over 1,000 institutions in 54 countries.
The Foreign Policy Institute (FPI) is an American research center based at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., United States. FPI is housed in the Benjamin T. Rome building on the Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. It organizes research initiatives and study groups, and hosts global leaders as resident or non-resident fellows in fields including international policy, business, journalism, and academia.
NATO Defense College (NDC) is the international military college for North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries. It is located in Rome, Italy.
William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies is a U.S. Department of Defense institution for defense and security studies in the Western Hemisphere. Through courses, seminars, outreach, strategic dialogue, and focused research in support of policy objectives, the Perry Center works with senior civilian and military officials from the Americas to build strong, sustainable networks of security and defense leaders and institutions. In so doing, the Perry Center is supposed to promote greater understanding of U.S. policy, mutually supportive approaches to security challenges, and improved, sustainable institutional capacity."
Atul Keshap is a retired American diplomat and career United States Foreign Service Officer from Virginia who serves at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as the President of the U.S.- India Business Council since January 2022. He also serves as Senior Vice President for South Asia and as President of the U.S.-Bangladesh Business Council. Previously, he served as the Chargé d'affaires of the United States mission to India in 2021. He formerly served as U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the United States Department of State. In 2022, Ambassador Keshap was elected into membership of the American Academy of Diplomacy. In May 2023, Keshap was named one of Washington's most influential foreign policy influencers for his work to shape U.S. relations with India.
Charles Wayne Hooper is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army who held the position of director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) from 2017 to 2020. DSCA administers security cooperation programs that support U.S. policy interests and objectives identified by the White House, Department of Defense, and Department of State. These objectives include developing specific partner capabilities, building alliances and partnerships, and facilitating U.S. access. DSCA integrates security cooperation activities in support of a whole-of-government approach; provides execution guidance to DoD entities that implement security cooperation programs; exercises financial and program management for the Foreign Military Sales system and many other security cooperation programs; and educates and provides for the long-term development of the security cooperation workforces.
