The United States’ network of military partnerships around the globe is key to maintaining its advantage over strategic competitors, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said today. 

Hicks spoke during a ceremony at the Pentagon to mark the establishment of the Defense Security Cooperation Service. This new component of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency was stood up to provide the Defense Department with comprehensive oversight and management of the security cooperation workforce.  

“There is no single foreign counterpart engagement that any senior DOD official does where the work of this community is not front and center,” Hicks said of the security cooperation workforce.  

“I know the work is hard, but the payoff is huge,” she said. “Because of you, wherever U.S. forces operate, they do so alongside the world’s best trained, best equipped and most capable allied and partner militaries, from Europe to the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific.” 

Those partnerships, Hick said, are a “major asymmetric advantage that we have, compared to our strategic competitors” gained through decades of defense security cooperation initiatives with an expanding network of partners. 

Since 1950, she noted, the defense security cooperation enterprise has spearheaded foreign military sales and other forms of assistance totaling over $1.2 trillion.  

In recent years, the demand for security assistance from U.S. allies and partners has skyrocketed. The U.S. provided $50 billion in security assistance in fiscal year 2020. In fiscal year 2024, which ended yesterday, the U.S. provided more than $100 billion in security assistance.

But she cautioned that the U.S. cannot afford to take its partnerships for granted, and said the launch of the new service comes at a pivotal moment for security cooperation. 

Hicks said the increase in demand for U.S. security cooperation is a direct response to a rise in aggression throughout the globe.  

“Nations of goodwill want to deter such aggression however they can, and effectively defend against it if they must,” she said. “And nations all around the world, and notably across the Global South, want to promote a rules-based international order, protect their coasts, and respond to humanitarian disasters. So, countries come to us for partnership. And every day, you make it possible for America to provide that.” 

She said going forward, the U.S. cannot accept the status quo as it confronts a “generational era of strategic competition.” 

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III directed the department to carry out a series of actions last June aimed at improving the effectiveness of the U.S. foreign military sales process and other security cooperation efforts in order to remain competitive.  

The creation of the DSCS is the result of a rigorous review co-led by the DOD acquisition and sustainment and policy officials in response to Austin’s directive. Congress codified the creation of the new service in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act.

The new service consolidates the infrastructure supporting DOD’s security cooperation workforce into a single organization designed to ensure appropriate allocation of personnel resources to meet global demand.  

It will provide the department with comprehensive oversight, management and analysis of security cooperation workforce staffing levels and assignments throughout the globe while maintaining operational control of highly trained security cooperation specialists at the combatant command level.   

Hicks said the new service is among the most consequential actions following Austin’s directive, noting the importance of a cohesive workforce that is well trained and well resourced in driving long-term change.  

“Today is the start of a new chapter for the security cooperation enterprise, one that all of you will write together over the next 12 months, and the years that will follow,” Hicks said.  

“The opportunities to succeed will be endless, just like the demands on your time and resources,” she said. “Because the ability of our allies and partners to win future wars will be shaped by what our security cooperation community does today to deliver for their warfighters tomorrow.” 

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