The State Partnership Program (SPP) is a joint program of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the individual states, territories, and District of Columbia. The program and the concept originated in 1993 as a simplified form of the previously established (1992) Joint Contact Team Program (JCTP). The JCTP aimed at assisting former Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union Republics, now independent, to form democracies and defense forces of their own. It featured long-term presence of extensive and expensive teams of advisory specialists. The SPP shortened the advisory presence to a United States National Guard unit of a designated state, called a partner, which would conduct joint exercises with the host. It is cheaper, has a lesser American presence, and can comprise contacts with civilian agencies. Today, both programs are funded.
The SPP is widespread. The JCTP is recommended when more extensive support is needed. Sometimes the names are interchangeable. A large share of originally JCTP activity was subsumed by the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) program made active in 1994. It prepares nations for membership in NATO. A typical path for a candidate has been SPP, PfP and then NATO. Once started, SPP activities appear to continue regardless of what other memberships a host nation may have. By nature the program creates close friends and allies.
Previously, and currently outside the program, the Guard was and is subject to a jurisdictional duality: it can be either Federally active or not. If inactive it is a reserve component only of the DoD. Its main function is as a state militia under the command of the Governor through the Adjutant General of the state or equivalent officer of the Territory or D.C. If active, it is entirely out of the jurisdiction of the state and under the DoD, which might or might not keep its original identity, but more likely plunders it for replacements or special units of the Regular Army or Air Force.
In the SPP, the State (or territory, etc.) and the DoD collaborate in the deployment of the unit, through the National Guard Bureau, and the Adjutant General of the State. The unit keeps its State identity. In the words of one source, it is "managed by the National Guard Bureau, but executed by the states." In that case there is collaboration between the state Adjutant General and the commander in the field.
The "partners" of the partnerships are the Guard units of various states and foreign nations that have requested and been granted partnerships. The program links National Guard units of U.S. States with partner countries around the world for the purpose of supporting the security cooperation objectives of the geographic Combatant Commands (CCMDs). It is not quite so cut-and-dried as pure security. There are quite a number of crisis relief and humanitarian activities.
Legal basis for the program Title 10 authorization The deployment authorized by the SPP under the joint management of State and Federal governments can only be in the "State Partnership" relationship, which according to the current United States Code (U.S.C.)Title 10 Section 341, quoted in is defined as a "program of activities." The Secretary of Defense is authorized to establish it between the "military forces," the "security forces," or the "governmental organizations" designed to respond to disasters or other emergencies, and the "National Guard of a state or territory." The nature of the activities is that they must support United States "Security Cooperation" (SC) objectives.
A State Partnership is thus an agreement between the United States and a foreign government to conduct joint security operations with the United States National Guard. These are mainly training exercises. They may (or may not) lead to membership of the partner in regional defense organizations.
"For SPP events conducted overseas, National Guard members are typically placed in a duty status by orders issued under the authority of 10 U.S.C. § 12301," which is a list of various circumstances in which Secretary of Defense may issue an involuntary activation of the Guard as a Reserve Component of the DoD. The permission of the Governor may be required in some cases. "For SPP events conducted within the United States, National Guard members are placed in a duty status by orders issued under 32 U.S.C. § 502. This permits the participating members to receive appropriate military pay and benefits." 32 U.S. Code § 502 specifies that the uard must attend regular training exercises, for which they get paid.
In summary, the Guard is either activated for out-of-country activities or regularly trained within it. No special SPP legislation is required.
Statutory authority The State Partnership Program is authorized under 10 U.S.C. § 341. Activities conducted under the program may also be carried out under:
10 U.S.C. § 1051 (Multilateral, bilateral, or regional cooperation programs: payment of personnel expenses) "authorizes the Secretary of Defense to pay the travel, subsistence, and similar personal expenses of defense personnel of developing countries in connection with their attendance at a multilateral, bilateral, or regional conference, seminar, or similar meeting," with certain restrictions. 10 U.S. Code § 321 (Training with friendly foreign countries: payment of training and exercise expenses), changed from 10 U.S.C. § 2010 (Combined Exercises), states "The armed forces under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Defense may train with the military forces or other security forces of a friendly foreign country...." 10 U.S.C. § 401 (Humanitarian and civic assistance provided in conjunction with military operations) authorizes the DOD "to carry out humanitarian and civic assistance activities in host nations in conjunction with military operations," defined to include "medical, surgical, dental, and veterinary professionals ... construction of rudimentary surface transportation systems ... well drilling and construction of basic sanitation facilities ... rudimentary construction and repair of public facilities." 10 U.S.C. § 2561 (Humanitarian Assistance) authorizes the expenditure of humanitarian assistance funds for the "transportation of humanitarian relief and other humanitarian purposes...." 10 U.S.C. § 2249c, renumbered to § 345. Establishes the Regional Defense Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program (CTFP). This organization is described in a report to Congress: "The Regional Defense Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program (CTFP) was established to meet an emerging and urgent defense requirement to build partnerships in the struggle against violent extremism through targeted, non-lethal, combating terrorism (CbT) education and training. The CTFP directly supports DoD’s efforts by providing CbT education and training for mid- to senior-level international military officers, ministry of defense civilians, and security officials." "Section 1206 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2006 ... provides the Secretary of Defense with authority to train and equip foreign military forces for two specified purposes — counterterrorism and stability operations — and foreign security forces for counterterrorism operations. Section 1206 authority now extends through FY2017." Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program provides funding related to preventing weapons proliferation and other activities.
Financial basis for the program Expenses for the SPP partnerships are the standard maintenance required to keep Guard units in the field, the standard maintenance required by the partner units, which must be paid by the partner governments, and the "travel-related expenses" above and beyond them. The Guard units are maintained by "Army or Air Force Personal Accounts," including "pay and allowances." The travel-related expenses are paid from separate funds, the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) accounts, of which there are many, such as the following:Since Kapp & Serafino wrote in 2011, the legislative authority of some funds has been repealed, while others have been altered.
National Guard Bureau’s International Affairs Division funds. Combatant Commander’s Initiative Fund (CCIF), established under 10 U.S. Code 166a. Accessed only by the CJCS or someone designated by him, the fund is used for payments on request to a "commander of a combatant command" for a number of specified activities, such as joint exercises.
The Wales Initiative Fund (WIF) is a yearly amount voted by Congress to be used in support of NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP) Program.The program was established in 1994 by NATO as an alternative to itself for new European nations formerly in Yugoslavia or the Soviet Union, who were not qualified, not yet qualified, or did not prefer membership in NATO but needed some coaching and other assistance in maintaining their "sovereignty and territorial integrity," especially in the counter-terrorist field. Then President Clinton in a supportive speech given in Warsaw in January 1994, proposed an annual fund subsequently dubbed the "Warsaw Initiative Fund," which began with FY 1996 and has not missed a year. Poland left the PfP in 1999 in favor of NATO. At the Wales NATO summit of September 2015, NATO voted to include Mediterranean nations in PfP. In 2015 the name of the fund was redubbed Wales Initiative Fund. Refer to Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program (CFTP) Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR) Asia-Pacific Regional Initiative Fund (APRI) Latin American Cooperation (LATAM COOP) Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Assistance (OHDCA) Minuteman Fellowship (MMF; no longer in existence) Building Partner Capacity (BPC) Overseas Humanitarian Assistance (OHA)
The program in action Deployment through geographic commands All SPP activities are coordinated through the geographic Combatant Commanders, the U.S. Ambassadors' country teams, the partner State, and other agencies as appropriate, to ensure that National Guard support is tailored to meet both U.S. and country objectives. Specifically, all activities must support the Theater Campaign Plan (TCP) as well as individual U.S. Ambassador mission plans in the countries where they operate. The unique civil-military nature of the National Guard allows active participation in a wide range of security cooperation activities, such as: emergency management and disaster response border and port security leadership and NCO development medical capacities economic security natural resource protection peacekeeping operations counter trafficking counter proliferation counter terrorism
Current partnerships The State Partnership Program consists of 88 partnerships (1 March 2023) with 100 sovereign countries across all six combatant commands. The discrepancy between 88 and 100 is due to there being one partnership with the Regional Security System (RSS), a prior security organization of 7 island nations in the Eastern Caribbean. All other cases follow the rule, one nation, one partnership. In some cases more than one Guard unit is partnered with a nation. The following is a list of partnerships, with the year they were formed.
USAFRICOM USAFRICOM currently maintains 18 SPP relationships:
2003, Morocco / Utah 2003, South Africa / New York 2004, Ghana / North Dakota 2004, Tunisia / Wyoming 2006, Nigeria / California 2008, Botswana / North Carolina 2008, Senegal / Vermont 2009, Liberia / Michigan 2014, Benin / North Dakota 2014, Togo / North Dakota 2015, Djibouti / Kentucky 2015, Kenya / Massachusetts 2017, Niger / Indiana 2018, Burkina Faso / District of Columbia 2019, Rwanda / Nebraska 2022, Cabo Verde / New Hampshire 2024, Zambia / North Carolina 2024, Malawi / North Carolina
USCENTCOM USCENTCOM currently maintains 9 SPP relationships:
1993, Kazakhstan / Arizona 1996, Kyrgyz Republic / Montana 2003, Tajikistan / Virginia 2004, Jordan / Colorado 2012, Uzbekistan / Mississippi