About USJFCOM: Multinational Command Support

Command Multinational Support

Command multinational support activities are integral to U.S. Joint Forces Command’s mission. USJFCOM’s Security Cooperation Strategy and Plan aligns USJFCOM multinational support activities with Office of the Secretary of Defense Guidance and the Regional Campaign Plans.

Objectives of command multinational activities are to:
• improve multinational joint interoperability in order to build partner capacity to conduct joint operations within a multinational force,
• improve multinational partners’ joint capabilities in order to expand joint capabilities of specified countries, and
• lead U.S. and partner joint military transformation in order to enhance future U.S. joint and multinational capabilities. The majority of activity focuses on joint education and training, joint experimentation, and efforts to improve interoperability.

As of late 2007, 34 liaison and exchange officers from 24 different countries are posted to USJFCOM. Additional officers assigned to Allied Command Transformation and U.S. Fleet Forces Command with access to USJFCOM increases the total to 85 national representatives from 48 different nations.

Partnership for Peace Engagement
Partnership for Peace is a NATO-led initiative established in 1994. It consists of more than two-dozen European and Central Asian nations working with the NATO alliance to coalesce Europe in the wake of Cold War tensions.

For some member countries, participating in the program is the first step toward an eventual invitation into the Alliance. For other members, it is a way to engage the United States and other nations in an allied-type environment.

USJFCOM’s Joint Warfighting Center works closely with the militaries of nations around the world in joint education and training efforts to develop the ability to work together in a variety of situations, including crisis response operations and peace support operations. Work involves establishing projects, assessing program effectiveness and facilitating practical exercises to familiarize nations’ senior staffs on how NATO is organized, and how it operates and conducts operational planning.

Multinational Experimentation
USJFCOM also seeks to improve U.S. and multinational joint interoperability, capabilities, and transformation through experimentation and interoperability. The International Engagement Program (IEP) Office within the Joint Concept Development and Experimentation Directorate (J9) benefits from a diverse and expert team of on-site representatives from most nations represented in USJFCOM.

Because the nations are here by invitation of the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman or Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, or the USJFCOM Commander, they enjoy direct and immediate access to their own ministers and chiefs of defense staff. Not only are they sources of capabilities, operational experience and regional and alliance perspectives that balance and complement the U.S. experience, but they also represent multinational commitments to facilitate mutually beneficial experimentation aimed at joint interoperability.

The recently completed MNE 5 improved the methods used to conduct interagency and multinational planning, coordination and execution to create and carry out a unified comprehensive strategy. The next experiment, MNE 6, is a two-year multinational and interagency effort to improve coalition capabililities to counter irrgular adversaries and to prevent non-committed actors from becoming adversaries. Improvements include gaining shared situational understanding of the operational environment, synchronizing efforts and assiting host nations, collaboratively developing and implementing a shared regional or transnational information strategy, and assessing campaign progress and success to better adapt to the situation.

Multinational Operations
Global security issues are too complex and dynamic for a single nation to solve alone. Nations have little choice but to enter into political, economic, and military partnerships where common goals and interests exist. USJFCOM aims to facilitate military partnerships and their affiliations at the multinational joint level, consistent with the U.S. national security strategy.