The US National Guard's State Partnership Program (SPP) has proven itself to be a valuable tool for building friendly relations with nations all around the world.

As part of the SPP, the US National Guard maintains 89 partnerships with 106 partner nations as of May.

The SPP enables partner nations and National Guard units to conduct joint exercises and military-to-military engagements.

SPP partnerships serve as a forum for intercultural dialogue and as an opportunity for expertise sharing between Guard units and the militaries of partner countries.

The benefits extend far beyond the security realm, however.

The deep community ties built by the SPP facilitate broader interagency and corollary engagements spanning military, government, economic and social spheres.

The US National Guard serves as the combat reserve of the US Army and Air Force, composed of National Guard units of all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the US Virgin Islands and Guam.

Each of the 54 National Guards of US states and territories partners with at least one other nation.

History of the SPP

The SPP evolved from the 1991 US European Command (EUCOM) decision to create the Joint Contact Team Program (JCTP) in the Baltic region.

The JCTP was designed to aid newly independent former Warsaw Pact and Soviet republics in creating secure democracies with their own defense forces.

It employed US Army reserve components and reserve airmen to aid in establishing democratic military institutions and enhanced security cooperation with these young nations.

US forces shared expertise and facilitated cooperation between civil and military institutions.

Most JCTPs were subsumed by easy to operate and cost-effective SPP partnerships, which first emerged in 1993.

Administered by the National Guard Bureau, the SPP marries critical, State Department-guided foreign policy goals with US Chief of Mission Security Cooperation Objectives and Department of Defense security goals.

Civilian-soldiers

The National Guard is ideally suited to engage with partner nations and conduct joint exercises

Most National Guard members hold full-time civilian jobs and serve part time as guardsmen. They are overseen both by their home state and the US government, meaning that while their primary responsibility is to their home state, guardsmen may serve overseas.

The main responsibility of each National Guard unit is to protect its respective home state, serving its community at times of greatest needs and responding to crises such as floods, earthquakes and pandemics.

The National Guard's military-to-military engagements demonstrate the immense value of the civilian-soldier to a democracy.