The twenty-first century has ushered in an era of dynamic changes to the international security environment, which demands new capabilities and responses to new threats, an increased likelihood of operating as part of a multinational effort, combined with an expectation

of economic austerity that places downward pressure on defense budgets. This dynamic security environment holds true for superpowers, like the United States, and nations at the other end of the geopolitical spectrum, like the Republic of Moldova. When it comes to the needs of military establishments across the entire range of national size and resources, they all share the same imperative for leader development and professional military education. General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, highlighted this imperative in his recently published “Strategic Direction to the Joint Force.” He identified the need to “reinforce leadership development at all levels of Joint Professional Military Education,” in order to develop principled leaders “who can combine new capabilities in new ways in complex environments.” All nations need to reform and leverage their professional military education programs.

 

From the perspective of the United States and NATO, a second imperative relates to the efforts undertaken to assist other nations in the enhancement of their professional military education programs. A key tenet of the recently published U.S. defense guidance, Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense, is building partnership capacity. Previous strategic documents have also stressed the importance of activities designed to enhance the professionalization of partner military forces, and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in a Foreign Affairs article titled “Helping Others Defend Themselves,” further elaborated on this concept by emphasizing the importance of building the institutional capacity or human capital of partner nations. 3 The “Summit Declaration on Defense Capabilities,” from the Chicago NATO

Summit in 2012, also highlighted the importance of linkages with partner countries and the need to expand education and training.4 Partnership capacity building, in part, should be focused on providing assistance to partner and allied professional military education (PME) programs. It is through enhanced partner capacity, and the ability to operate in a multinational environment, that global security challenges will be addressed and global stability will be maximized.