A class engages in discussion during the Perry Center’s inaugural Climate Change and Implications for Defense and Security course in May 2023. The William J. Perry Center
DR. PAUL J. ANGELO
Threats to hemispheric security are myriad: trafficking in people, weapons and drugs; illegal fishing and mining; climate change and environmental fallout; corruption; cybercrimes and digital disinformation; predatory violence and extortion; and targeted challenges to international law, including human rights violations. Countering the threat networks responsible for this alarming panorama requires a strong network of dedicated security and defense practitioners working collaboratively across the Americas to uphold the rule of law, preserve democratic governance and safeguard security. Building and empowering this community is central to the work of the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies.
When the Washington, D.C.-based center was founded in 1997, North America was poised for deeper cooperation. Bringing together senior security and defense leaders to analyze and strategize in a multilateral fashion was a high priority for the revitalized democracies of Latin America and the Caribbean. In the intervening 27 years, the Perry Center has become the premier hemispheric security and defense forum for advancing sustainable institutional capacity in democratic institutions and promoting greater understanding and trust among the countries of our shared neighborhood.
First and foremost, the Perry Center is a hub — a trusted partner with the ability to convene a community of professionals in ways that promote dialogue, strategic thinking and shared solutions to common challenges. With partners and alumni in more than 50 countries, the center’s strength lies in its ability to attract top talent and create opportunities for one-on-one conversations between uniformed and civilian leaders in a not-for-attribution classroom setting.
Perry Center alumni — among them presidents, ministers, senior policymakers, military and police commanders, and civil society leaders — work at all levels throughout the Americas to improve citizen protection, bolster defense institutions, shape policy, export security and advance partnerships. The Perry Center alumni network is more than 10,000 strong and growing. Their success is our collective success and vital to cultivating capable security and defense sectors that embody democratic values.
U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) has been the Perry Center’s strategic partner since its activation in 2002. The Perry Center supports USNORTHCOM’s homeland defense mission and enduring objectives by developing and strengthening security cooperation in its geographic area of focus, where the Perry Center has strong institutional links and where 25% of our alumni is based. In addition to the governance, human rights and transnational threats portfolios that have been central to our work since the beginning, the Perry Center has increasingly prioritized the meaningful integration of women, interagency interlocutors and private sector partners into security and defense activities. After all, multidimensional security requires whole-of-government and even whole-of-society inputs.
As part of a multilateral partnership that includes USNORTHCOM, U.S. Southern Command, Canadian Joint Operations Command, Mexico, Caribbean nations and other partners, we work to bolster humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts and counter illicit trafficking networks operating in the southern approaches to the U.S. We also collaborate with USNORTHCOM on Women, Peace, and Security program initiatives in the Caribbean and Mexico. And every year the Perry Center sponsors a national security decision-making course for doctoral candidates at our Mexican Navy partner institute, the Center for Advanced Naval Studies (Centro de Estudios Superiores Navales). In the coming months, the Perry Center’s faculty will work with our Bahamian partners on national strategies for critical infrastructure protection in cyberspace and armed violence reduction.
Our newest in-residence course offerings at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., include Cyber Policy Development and Artificial Intelligence Applications for Defense, Maritime Security Policy, Civil-Military Relations in Armed Violence Reduction and Prevention, and Climate Change Implications for Defense and Security. Due to high interest from governments in the Americas, we added an additional module of our climate change course last year and welcomed participants from other regions of the world to underscore the universal nature of the problem set and the need for global solutions.
Although the Perry Center is tacking in new thematic directions, fostering positive civil-military relations remains foundational for the center. It gets to the heart of why we are a credible convening agent and why our partners have the democratic legitimacy to act on behalf of their citizens.
Yet good security and defense governance requires that institutions be both effective and accountable — two qualities that were top-of-mind for our namesake, former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, and that are, regrettably, at great risk today.
Authoritarianism and populism are once again on the rise, homicide and extortion rates in Latin America and the Caribbean remain among the highest in the world, and the diffusion of disinformation and misinformation is undermining confidence in elections and democratic governance. In some corners of our hemisphere, security and defense forces are deployed not to help citizens exercise their rights or rebound from extreme weather events but instead to attack, silence and repress them.
One lesson we can take away from the last 26 years is just how fragile the democratic order we have built truly is. And what helps us withstand, persist and succeed as a community of democracies are institutions that persist despite shifting political winds or changes in national leadership — be they ministries of defense and security, legislatures and judiciaries, newspapers and nongovernmental organizations, or the Perry Center.
Given emergent, and in some cases resurgent, security challenges in the Americas, the need for the Perry Center and its vast alumni network is unmistakable. We must build on the momentum we have created together. With support from our interagency and regional partners, the Perry Center will remain a trusted space for intellectual openness and exchange. Together we will analyze complex challenges, develop strategic mindsets and devise whole-of-hemisphere approaches to regional security. We will double down on our efforts to empower a network of individuals and institutions committed to making the Americas safer, stronger and more resilient. And together we will be better positioned to confront and counter the threats we face.
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