William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies

William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies

Perry Center Seal
Agency overview
Formed	1997
Headquarters	National Defense University, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, DC
Motto	Mens et fidis mutua (Mutual understanding and confidence)
Agency executive	Mr. Mark Wilkins, Director
Parent agency	Department of Defense, Defense Security Cooperation Agency
Website	Perry Center

William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies is a U.S. Department of Defense^[1] institution for defense and security studies in the Western Hemisphere. Through courses, seminars, outreach, strategic dialogue, and focused research in support of policy objectives, the Perry Center works with senior civilian and military officials from the Americas to build strong, sustainable networks of security and defense leaders and institutions.^[2] In so doing, the Perry Center promotes greater understanding of U.S. policy, mutually supportive approaches to security challenges, and improved, sustainable institutional capacity. The Perry Center's programs align with the Office of the Secretary Defense's global initiative of Security and Defense Institution Building (SDIB).^[3]

While the Defense Security Cooperation Agency is the Perry Center's executive agent,^[4] the Perry Center also supports other Department of Defense components, such as United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM)^[5]

In 2013, The Perry Center was the only federal office to receive an Alfred P. Sloan Award for Workplace Flexibility.^[6][7] In 2016, the Perry Center was again honored with the Award for Workplace Flexibility.^[8] However, in 2015 the Center for Public Integrity, in an article focusing on alleged gross violations of human rights by senior Center staff, quoted an internal Southern Command document that reported that CHDS "staff had exchanged 'racially charged emails' — including one directed at President Barack Obama; used offensive language such as 'faggot,' 'buttboy' and 'homo'; and that 'women employees feel that they are treated inappropriately.' Even senior leaders used 'inappropriate hand gestures,' it said, and mentioned simulations of masturbation.” ^[9]

Three years earlier, following national security whistleblower disclosures of corruption, alleged human rights violations and other gross malfeasance by other senior staff working under the then Director, Richard D. Downie, (who earlier was the first Commandant of the controversial Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or WHINSEC), the latter requested an officer from another Regional Center to "informally"--not outside of the chain of command headed by that same Director--investigate the disclosures. This was done using an Army 15-6 rule in a civilian DoD training institution, choosing someone who belonged to a "sister" institution rather than an independent Office of Inspector General to head the probe. In March, 2012, the investigating officer privately provided his "findings" on allegations of gross misconduct to the very same Center Director who had commissioned him: ”After extensive review into these allegation[s], I find that the Center’s leadership has not violated any laws or Department of Defense regulations, has not acted unethically towards its employees, and has maintained good order and conduct expected in an organization of the Department of Defense.” However, the copy of the report obtained by the Center in a Freedom of Information ((FOIA)) request suggested that the full story was not in fact told, as it reflected a state of fear shared by Center staff members reluctant to come forward. "Many employees did want to remain anonymous for fear of retribution" by senior staff, it said. The report specifically cited what the accused wrongdoers had already done to two national security whistleblowers. The Center is now the focus of a DoD Inspector General probe following a request by then Senate Armed Services Chair Carl Levin. ^[10][11][12]

History and Background

The William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (WJPC) was created on September 3, 1997^[13] by then-U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, who had proposed creating a regional center tailored to the unique requirements of the Western Hemisphere where many countries could strengthen civilian defense and security leadership in revitalized democracies. The Perry Center traces its roots back to the first two Defense Ministerial of the Americas^[14][15](DMA), where Secretary Perry convened defense ministers from around the hemisphere to discuss shared defense and security issues.

The Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS) opened its doors on September 17, 1997, followed by a two-day Hemispheric Conference on Education and Defense. The Center conducted its first resident course, the Defense Planning and Resource Management Course, in March 1998. The Center also conducted the first of many in-region seminars that year.

On April 2, 2013, the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies was renamed the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies in honor of the Center's founder, the 19th Secretary of Defense, Dr. William J. Perry.^[16]

The Perry Center is co-located at, and maintains an academic relationship with National Defense University at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC.^[17]

Courses & Programs

Resident Courses

Resident courses form the core of the Perry Center academic program. Conducted in Spanish or English, foundational and specialized courses are designed to meet the evolving needs of sophisticated professionals from the defense and security sectors across the hemisphere. Resident phases are one or two weeks in length and are preceded by a distance learning phase.

• Strategy and Defense Policy (SDP) - The foundational course for Spanish-speakers and consists of a common core covering topics such as policy analysis and planning; defense planning and resource management; cybersecurity; capability-based planning; organizational reform; and security and defense sector reform. Four thematic areas are explored in depth in small group sessions.
• Washington Security and Defense Seminar (WSDS) - Designed primarily for members of the diplomatic corps of countries from the Western Hemisphere accredited to the White House and to the Organization of American States. Participants are exposed to issues and share perspectives on the formation and implementation of U.S. national security and foreign policy, and the dynamics of government decision-making.
• Managing Security and Defense (MSD) - Conceived to build the capacity of senior executives in the security and defense sectors to enable them to better manage their respective sectors through effective policies and integrated decisions. The MSD supports the broader framework of Security and Defense Institution Building (SDIB).
• Caribbean Defense and Security Course (CDSC) - Designed to help participants develop and expand their competence in analyzing issues and challenges in the Caribbean region and then utilize tools of policy, strategy, planning, and resource management to effect reforms in the security and defense sectors.
• Combating Transnational Organized Crime and Illicit Networks in the Americas (CTOC) - The principal objective of this course is to deepen participants’ understanding and analysis of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and the defense and security threats they pose to the Americas through their illicit activities, which include drug trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking, human smuggling, counterfeiting, and cyber crimes.
• Defense Policy and Complex Threats (DPCT) - Formulated for security and defense practitioners, the DPCT course presents methodologies and tools that can forecast future security and defense challenges and identify institutional gaps in confronting complex adaptive conflicts. Informed by realistic, data-driven models, policymakers can develop strategic policy guidance that establishes long-term priorities and optimizes resources and forces to better respond to the security needs of both tomorrow and today.
• Strategic Implications of Human Rights and Rule of Law (HR/ROL) - The objectives of this course include deepening the participants’ understanding and analysis of complex topics of human rights, the rule of law, international humanitarian law, military professionalism, and transitional justice.

Regional Seminars

Regional Seminars are held in conjunction with regional partners and are tailored to the specific objectives identified by the Perry Center, the partner institution, and the U.S. embassy team. Regional seminars serve to enhance sustainable institutional capacity, emphasizing support to national and regional policy-makers and leaders.

• Regional Seminar to Combat Transnational Organized Crime and Illicit Networks (CTOC) - Similar to the CTOC resident course, the objective of this seminar is to build capacity and develop a Community of Practice to understand the threats from transnational organized crime, terrorism, and illicit networks and to develop national, regional, and international strategies to promote security and prosperity in combating these threats in Latin America.

Hemispheric Forums

The Hemispheric Forum is a vehicle that takes advantage of the abundance of subject-matter experts and the community of interest in Western Hemisphere affairs. The format of each program is a panel discussion centered on a timely and important topic, with expert panelists representing government, think tanks, and academia. These events are open to the public and are streamed online with simultaneous Spanish interpretation.

Hemispheric Forum topics have included:

• Women in Peace and Security^[18]
• Dynamics of FARC Demobilization^[19]
• Coping with Opposition to the U.S. in Parts of Latin America
• Corruption in the Western Hemisphere: Impediment to Citizen Security and Democratic Consolidation
• Impact of Energy Developments in the Greater Caribbean Region
• Reducing Violence in Central America: Citizen Security and the El Salvador Experiment
• Security and Defense Challenges Posed by Emerging Technologies in the Americas: Cybersecurity, Drones (Unmanned Systems), and Robotics
• The Colombia Peace Process
• The Changing Western Hemisphere^[20]
• Beyond Convergence: A World Without Order

Alumni

Key to the Perry Center's mission is relationship-building, as the Center strives to maintain strong relationships with alumni. Maintaining relationships with alumni helps the Center's professors stay abreast of security and defense developments in countries throughout the region, and also provides opportunities for collaboration and increased regional exposure for the Perry Center. All of the following countries have sent participants to resident events at the Center: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Belize, Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Great Britain, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Spain, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, and the United States.

Notable Alumni

• His Excellency Brigadier (ret.) David A. Granger, President of Guyana
• Dr. José Bayardi, Former Minister of Employment and Public Security, Former Uruguay Minister of Defense
• Dr. María Liz García de Arnold Frasquerí, President of Universidad Metropolitana de Asunción Paraguay; Former Minister of Defense
• His Excellency Dr. Nestor Juan Cerón Suero, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Costa Rica
• His Excellency Mr. Stephen Charles Vasciannie, Former Ambassador of Jamaica to the United States
• Mr. Owen Lloyd Ellington, Former Commissioner of Police of the Jamaica Constabulary Force
• Commodore Roderick Bowe, Former Commander of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force
• General (ret.) Oswaldo Jarrín Roman, Former Ecuadorian Minister of Defense
• Colonel Alvin Eddie Quintyne, Barbados Defence Force Chief of Staff
• Brigadier General Anthony Phillips-Spencer, Ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago to the Unites States; Former Vice-Chief of Defence

Human Rights Controversies

In 2015, various media organizations published allegations that the Center, previously headed by a former WHINSEC Commandant, had on its faculty a WJPC professor who once belonged to the Chilean Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional of military dictator Augusto Pinochet before he became a senior official in that regime. In response to media inquiries, a former CHDS Director suggested that the professor might have "previously worked with the CIA." The case brought immediate fire from Capitol Hill as well as human rights activists. “The Department of Defense should know better than to invite in and continue to employ a foreign military officer for a position of authority at a prestigious U.S. institution even after he was credibly implicated in serious crimes,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in response to the reports. “We criticize other countries for failing to hold accountable officers who violate the law. Yet, in this case, we reward him in our own country? It sends a terrible message.”^[21][22][23] The Department of Defense claims that at the time of his hiring no adverse information was known to hiring officials, ignoring the fact that substantial information about the case was provided to the Center's leadership as early as 2008. This professor was indicted in a Chilean civilian court in 2014 along with approximately 25 others from the regiment to which he had been assigned, for questioning by a judge under the legal theory of collective responsibility for the alleged human rights abuses committed by members of his regiment. Press reports included the personal accusation against the CHDS professor by a torture victim. "He was the person who tortured us, with his face shown,” said Herman Carrasco, who added that he’d known the CHDS professor from social events before the coup. “He forced us into sexual acts, which shows that besides ferocious cruelty there was a level of psychopathic behavior."^[24] The William Perry professor, who was subsequently released on bail pending resolution of the allegations about his involvement in the torture and death of eight detainees, was in October 2016 formally named by a civilian court for his alleged role in the torture and murder of a 9th unarmed detainee, a professor of mathematics. Other allegations include the clandestine participation of Center officials in the 2009 Honduran coup, something that caused CIA ire when discovered, an issue that was included in the request by then Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Levin for an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General.^{[25][26] [27]}

William J. Perry Award

The William J. Perry Award for Excellence in Security and Defense Education is named after the former U.S. Secretary of Defense who was responsible for the establishment of the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies. Recipients are chosen for having substantially contributed in tangible ways to enhancing capacity in security and defense, building mutually beneficial relationships, and increasing democratic security in the Americas. Nominees may be educators, practitioners, or institutions of defense and security from throughout the Hemisphere, or from outside the region.

In 2013, then CHDS Director Downie, the first Commandant of WHINSEC, gave the award to that institution, the successor of the infamous School of the Americas. In July 2016, just days before the Democratic Party convention, a Platform Committee meeting in Orlando, Florida, issued a call for the closing of the Institute as one of its planks into the Democratic Party's policy platform. The amendment, which was agreed to by representatives of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, said: "Our support of democracies and civilian governments in the Western Hemisphere includes our belief that their military and police forces should never be involved in the political process, and therefore we will reinstate the 2000 Congressional mandate to close the School of the Americas now known as WHINSEC." ^[28]

In 2016, the William Perry Center announced that the award would be given to U.S. Ambassador Luigi R. Einaudi "for his commitment to advancing cooperation and promoting defense and security education among the countries of the Americas." As a senior aide to the Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Einaudi was in the room in Santiago, Chile, in June 1976 when Kissinger gave Argentina's ruling military dictatorship a "green light" for their illegal repression during a so-called dirty "war" in which tens of thousands of people were secretly detained, tortured in more than 300 concentration camps, then murdered. "Einaudi, the current assistant secretary general of the Organization of American States, who took notes at the meeting ... previously denied that Mr. Kissinger privately gave any 'green light' to political repression and torture in Latin America, as has Mr. Kissinger himself," Diana Jean Schemo reported in The New York Times. Although Einaudi repeatedly denied that Kissinger had given his approval at the Hotel Carreras, later declassified information showed that indeed Kissinger offered unquestioned support for the dirty warriors. ^{[29][30] [31] [32] [33]}

Other DSCA Regional Centers

The Perry Center is one of five regionally-focused security studies organizations. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency is the Executive Agent for all five organizations.^[36] The other four are:

• Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) http://africacenter.org/
• Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI-APCSS) http://apcss.org
• George C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies (GCMC) http://www.marshallcenter.org
• Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) http://nesa-center.org

See also

• National Defense University
• William J. Perry
• Defense Diplomacy

References

United States Department of Defense
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