FORCES MAINTAINED IN KOSOVO

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, left, speaks with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, right, before a conference of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Oct. 10, 2012. Panetta is scheduled to meet with several defense ministers during the two-day event. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

U.S., NATO Forces Maintain Vigil in Kosovo
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2012 - Returned this week from a trip to Kosovo, the commander of NATO and U.S. European Command recognized the 5,000 NATO forces that continue to preserve the peace there and said he hopes to reduce their numbers in 2013 if the situation allows.

Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, writing in his command blog, recalled the 1990s when almost 60,000 NATO troops conducted peacekeeping missions in the Balkans, sometimes engaging in vigorous combat.

More than 100,000 people died during a turbulent decade following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, he noted. In one single incident in Srebrenica in Bosnia, almost 8,000 men and boys were massacred during the worst war crime in Europe since World War II.

The international community rallied to promote peace talks between warring ethnic and religious groups, and under a United Nations mandate NATO contributed forces to help stem the violence.

Today, the NATO presence has dropped from 15,000 in 2009 to the current 5,000, deployed from the United States and 29 other nations.

Most are in Kosovo, Stavridis said, with the mission of maintaining a safe and secure environment and ensuring freedom of movement.

Despite occasional demonstrations, roadblocks and violence, "the situation is largely under control," he reported.

"We are hoping to reduce [the NATO force] further in the coming year, although that will be very situation-dependent," he said.

"The key will be steady and sustained international pressure on both Serbia and Kosovo to resolve their difficulties, which range from border disputes to customs arrangements along their extensive and contested border," he said.
Stavridis praised the European Union's recent efforts to bring the two prime ministers together to address these differences.

He offered assurance that NATO forces will remain as needed to underpin these initiatives. "NATO will also stay steady," he said. "We'll continue performing our U.N.-mandated mission to the best of our ability."

"As the cold winter approaches, I'm thankful for the 5,000 troops far from their homes," Stavridis wrote. "They are standing the watch, keeping the peace, and shaping a more peaceful world in the Balkans: something that looked impossible a decade ago."

NATO's contribution has helped shape a vastly different security environment in the Balkans over the past decade, he said.

"While tensions remain, Croatia, Albania and Slovenia are members of NATO," he said. "Bosnia-Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro are all in various stages of applying for NATO membership. Serbia wants in the European Union. Kosovo is recognized by nearly 100 nations."

In addition, many of these countries have troops deployed to Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force there, Stavridis noted.

 

DOLPHIN 2012 CONCLUDES

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

U.S. Navy teams work with specially trained dolphins during an exercise designed to help the Montenegrin navy detect underwater explosives left over from war. State Department photo, courtesy of U.S. Embassy Montenegro
Dolphin 12 Training Concludes in Montenegro

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2012 - Advancing U.S. European Command's efforts to build partnerships and partner capacity across the continent, U.S. Navy divers and six bottlenose dolphins wrapped up a month-long exercise yesterday, during which they trained Montenegrin navy divers to locate and clear underwater mines and explosives dating back to World War I.

Dolphin 2012 concluded yesterday in Tivat, Montenegro, with the Navy presenting $70,000 in dive equipment to help their Montenegrin counterparts establish an underwater clearance capability, U.S. Embassy officials reported.

The presentation capped a month of training in the Boka-Kotorska Bay by members of the San Diego-based Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 1 and the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.

Using specially trained dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, the participants demonstrated how to identify sea mines or explosive remnants, some that have been on the ocean floor for more than 80 years, officials said.

During the training, the dolphins used their exceptional biological sonar capabilities to locate mine-like objects and mark them with GPS coordinates. At the exercise's conclusion, the participants presented the Montenegrin government officials a grid listing all objects found and their locations, officials said.

Dolphin 12 was part of a multiyear U.S. program to help Montenegro detect potentially dangerous objects within its waters and build its capacity to rehabilitate areas plagued by remnants of war, officials said.

The effort is being funded by Eucom's Humanitarian Mine Action Program and the State Department's Humanitarian Demining Training Center and Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.

Dolphins have an extraordinary sonar capability that surpasses anything human divers or the latest technology developments can provide, officials from the Navy Marine Mammal Program said. The Navy relies on specially trained dolphins as well as sea lions to detect sea mines, that, if not found, could sink ships, destroy landing craft and kill or injure people, program officials explained.

The dolphins used in the training receive two to three years of specialty training before working on underwater security projects. In addition, they are cared for with around-the-clock medical and dental care and enjoy a diet of restaurant-grade fish.

The Navy's dolphins operate in the open oceans without tethers, and no Navy marine mammal has been a casualty in any hostile conflict, officials reported.

GOVERNMENT SAYS "WHOLE-OF-GOVERNMENT" BOOSTS EUCOM'S EFFECTIVENESS

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
Ambassador Lawrence Butler, U.S. European Command's deputy to the commander and foreign policy advisor, discusses regional security issues with U.S. Ambassador to Latvia Judith Garber, during the Baltic Sea Region Senior Leadership Seminar at the Eucom headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, April 20, 2012. U.S. European  

'Whole-of-Government' Focus Boosts Eucom's Effectiveness’
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
STUTTGART, Germany, May 11, 2012 - Some staff members at U.S. European Command, the oldest and in some people's view, most traditional of the U.S. combatant commands, thought the "whole-of-government" concept introduced about three years ago was nothing but a fad.

Mike Anderson, acting director of Eucom's Interagency Partnering Directorate, said he knew differently from the start. The idea of promoting interagency collaboration that leverages all elements of national power to address challenges in Europe and Eurasia simply made too much sense to fade with the times, he said.
Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis had already seen the benefits of interagency collaboration as commander of U.S. Southern Command when he arrived here three years ago to take the helm at Eucom. Because the Eucom staff interfaces with NATO and European militaries , Stavridis opted to assign a Napoleonic "J code" to the command's new interagency partnership directorate to help synchronize it with the NATO structure and elevate its stature within his own command.

Southcom, U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Pacific Command have since adopted the same J9 model, Anderson noted. U.S. Northern Command, Centcom and U.S. Special Operations Command all also have standalone interagency directorates, although they do not designate them as "J9" staffs.

"It's one thing organizationally to make a change, but the more important thing, in my humble opinion, is the cultural change," Anderson said during an interview with American Forces Press Service. The cultural change didn't come overnight at Eucom, he admitted, but thanks to the commander's emphasis, visible contributions, and repeated reinforcement, it has taken hold.

"Two-and-a-half years into it, it is almost second nature," Anderson said. "The mindset has changed."

What's accelerated that, he said, is more than simply command emphasis. The proof has been in the pudding, the value that comes from incorporating interagency partners directly into the staff.

Stavridis' civilian deputy to the commander, Ambassador Larry Butler, brings a State Department perspective as he advises Stavridis regarding the command's missions and activities.

In addition, the Interagency Partnering Directorate -- a staff of about 30 military members, DOD civilians and agency partners from throughout the federal government -- contributes specialized expertise throughout the command. The directorate hosts representatives from the departments of State, Justice, Energy and Treasury, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Justice Department's International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program.

This sprinkling of "soft power" and law enforcement representatives throughout the command brings "vital depth and breadth to our command, its operations and our outreach across the continent," Stavridis said. That, he said, contributes directly to the mission and increases Eucom's effectiveness and ability to speak and act across various organizational cultures.

"There's been a huge return on investment," Anderson agreed. "This military headquarters of nearly 1,000 people has realized that the relatively small investment of 30 people in this directorate makes the plans they are working on and the exercises they are training on more realistic and better informed than when they previously were informed by just a single, Defense Department vantage point."

Interagency partnering has become a foundation for applying "Smart Defense" at time when budgets may be shrinking, but threats aren't, Stavridis recently told Congress.
Today's complex security environment exceeds the capacity of any single government organization, the admiral told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March.
"It demands whole-of-government solutions that draw strength and effectiveness from the collective judgment, training and experience of the many public servants in government who, working together, can effectively synchronize the elements of national power," Stavridis said.

And particularly in light of constrained resources, he said, there's clear recognition of the benefits of bringing both "soft" and "hard" power to the table. "At European Command, we believe that 'no one of us is as smart as all of us, thinking and working together,'" Stavridis told the Senate panel.

The interagency partners' contributions extend far beyond their representation on the Eucom staff, Anderson explained. Each has direct reach-back to other experts within their agencies, as well as working relationships with their counterparts in U.S. embassies in Europe and Eurasia. Besides hosting federal agency partners, the J9 directorate serves as the command's lead for interacting with international and non-governmental organizations, the private sector, think tanks and academia.

The presence of other agency expertise at a military command has had a huge payoff at Eucom, enhancing the support it's able to provide allied and partner nations. For example, Eastern European nations that come to Eucom for help in securing their borders -- not a traditional U.S. military mission -- can tap into expertise from other U.S. agencies that specialize in that function.

"Now, we have border-security experts right down the hallway," Anderson said, including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and DEA. And when needed, they can call on their respective agency headquarters to dispatch "A teams" to advise and train partner nations.

"So when you talk about 'bang for the buck,' there's been a realization on the staff here that by having this relatively small footprint of interagency partners, we have so much more reach-back to the rest of the 'whole-of-government,'" Anderson said.
As the United States draws down its forces in Afghanistan and shifts it focus to preserving strategic partnerships with European allies, Anderson said the "strategic bridges" established throughout the U.S. interagency can't be forgotten.

"We also don't want to lose the strategic partnerships we have developed with our own federal partners," he said. "They are strategic partners as well, and our strengthened relationships with them were also born of crisis, after 9/11. And they, too, will be critical to our country as we face the future."

U.S. EUROPEAN COMMAND CONTINUES "ROBUST EXERCISE PROGRAM"

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE 

An F-16 Fighting Falcon from the 480th Fighter Squadron takes off from Konya, Turkey, during Exercise Anatolian Falcon 2012, March 12, 2012. U.S. and Turkish air forces exercise air interdiction, attack, air superiority, defense suppression, airlift, air refueling and reconnaissance capabilities. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Benjamin Wilson  

Eucom Exercises Adapt to Operational, Fiscal Environment

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

STUTTGART, Germany , May 9, 2012 - Budget tightening won't mean an end to U.S. European Command's robust exercise program, but it could bring big changes to the program that keeps U.S. and allied forces at the top of their game, Eucom officials here said.

In fact, as operations wind down in Afghanistan, Navy Vice Adm. Charles Martoglio, Eucom's deputy commander, told American Forces Press Service he expects an increase in U.S. exercises with NATO allies and other partners.

U.S. participation dropped measurably over the past decade because forces were tied up in real-world events in the Middle East, he said. But as those forces return, he said, the exercise program will become key to maintaining their combat edge and the interoperability developed working on the ground, in the air and at sea.

"We do not want to lose this muscle that we have built with our partners," agreed Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, Eucom's deputy director of plans, policy and strategy.

Building on those hard-earned skills will be critical to sustaining NATO into the future, Martoglio said. "So we have to look toward ensuring interoperability of those forces and routinely training together so that if we have to conduct high-end operations, we have the ability to work together from a technical perspective, and the skills to work together from a training perspective," he said.

Throughout its history, Eucom has aligned its exercise program to changing geopolitical conditions and challenges, said Marine Corps Col. Edward Bligh, chief of the command's joint training, readiness and exercise division.

During the Cold War, exercises focused on a land battle in the Fulda Gap. After the Berlin Wall fell, they shifted toward building partnerships with new Eastern European democracies.

Then, after the 9/11 terror attacks, exercise planners moved into high gear to prepare U.S. and coalition forces for deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The people who fight with us downrange are coming from our [combatant command area of responsibility]," Bligh said. "So to ensure they are capable and ready to go, our exercise program has been highly focused on International Security Assistance Force preparation."

Now, as Eucom continues to support that training mission, Bligh and his fellow planners are looking toward the next challenge. "How can we sustain that partnership capacity and build on it and go to that next tier, whatever that may be?" he said.

It's a question being asked within the context of looming budget cuts that will have a direct impact on the exercise program.

The simple answer would be to eliminate or scale back some of the command's 20-plus annual exercises. But Bligh said he sees another trend: more targeted engagements focused on specific capabilities and partners and directly in line with contingency plans.

That, he said, means basing scenarios not just on current threats, but also on emerging ones ranging from ballistic missiles to cyber-attacks.

Bligh also projected that some exercises will be combined, he said. This year, for example, Austere Challenge, an annual senior-level decision-making exercise, is being combined with Juniper Cobra, a combined air defense exercise between the United States and Israel.

Although doing so is a significant challenge for exercise planners -- who must build enough into the scenarios to keep all players engaged at both the tactical and strategic levels -- it stands to reduce costs and streamline planning efforts, the colonel explained.

Bligh said he also anticipates more regionally focused exercises and increased engagement with Turkey, Poland, Russia and Israel, nations specifically identified in the command's theater engagement plan.

The recent Anatolian Falcon 2012 exercise between U.S. and Turkish air forces, for example, was designed to test the two countries' military interoperability as they conducted a variety of air missions.

A new exercise for fiscal 2013, Saber Guardian, will bring together about 150 U.S. Army Europe soldiers and their Romanian counterparts as part of a broader effort to build partnerships in the Black Sea region.

Although the United States traditionally has sponsored exercises and invited other allies and partners to participate, Bligh said, U.S. forces will increasingly participate in other countries' exercises. This year, for example, U.S. Army Europe plans to send troops to a land-forces exercise hosted by Poland. As that program matures, Bligh envisions that U.S. Air Forces Europe also could participate.

"We are attending another nation's exercise at a fraction of the cost of us hosting our own," he said.

In another promising development, more partner nations are beginning to exercise together, independent of the United States. Bulgaria, for example, now hosts its own regional energy security exercise, Energy Flame, for its Balkan neighbors, using simulation capabilities the United States spent the past 10 to 15 years helping the Bulgarians build.

"They run it and do the whole show," Bligh said. "Not only do they have the capability to run a very sophisticated exercise out of their own simulation center, but they have graduated to a degree that they are able to share that capability in constructive ways with their Balkan neighbors. So that, to us, is a real success story."

Although sustaining partner-nation capacity will remain a command priority, Air Force Lt. Col. Phil Everitte, Eucom's exercise branch chief, said he expects the exercise program to also put increasing emphasis on putting contingency plans to practice.

"Since money is tight, we want to do things more smartly," he said. "That means being more focused on contingencies – basically our wartime tasking and our core missions. So we are trying to lead our program in that direction."

U.S. EUROPEAN COMMAND WORKS WITH OTHER AGENCIES TO STOP ILLICIT GOODS

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

A counterpiracy vessel protection detachment from the Maltese armed forces demonstrates aerial boarding procedures during the Eurasia Partnership Capstone 2011 exercise, Dec. 5, 2011. Some 100 representatives from Azerbijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Malta, Romania, Ukraine and the United States focused on strengthening maritime relationships among Eurasian nations to counter trafficking, piracy and other threats. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Caitlin Conroy  

New Task Force Supports Countertrafficking in Europe
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
STUTTGART, Germany, May 8, 2012 - A new task force at U.S. European Command is helping other U.S. government agencies and their international counterparts confront trafficking in illicit goods and services that officials call a major national security threat to the United States.


Eucom stood up the Joint Interagency Counter Trafficking Center here in September to focus on trafficking in drugs, weapons, humans and other illicit commodities, as well as their financing, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Scraba, the center's director, told American Forces Press Service.


Its role is to marshal military resources to support a whole-of-government approach to a skyrocketing problem that extends far beyond European borders.
"Europe has become the illicit trafficking intersection of the world," Scraba said, a transit zone for illicit shipments originating not only in Europe, but also in the Middle East, Asia, and increasingly, South and Central America.


Scraba noted a variety of factors: Europe's central location, a lucrative cocaine market that pays four to five times the U.S. street value, and increasing challenges traffickers face getting drugs across the southern U.S. border.


"So there is an incredible incentive for drug organizations to expand and open up new franchises in Europe," Scraba said.


Compounding the challenge, he explained, is the fact that traffickers who once operated independently have aligned their efforts. They see the value of working together as they use the same organized networks to traffic their materials.


The result, Scraba said, is far more sophisticated criminal networks able to operate across national borders. Among the greatest concerns, he said, has been the convergence of drug and terror networks.


All of this contributes to corruption of legitimate governments as well as global financial and trade networks, Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, the Eucom commander, said during an interview with the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service. "It undermines fragile democracies. It has a real human cost."


Scraba described the step-by-step process that occurs. "Trafficking feeds corruption. And if you have corruption, that leads to instability within the governing process of a country," he said. "If you then have instability and corruption in the day-to-day governing of a country, then that spreads to regional instability. And regional instability ... has the second- and third-order effects of impacting multiple regions, requiring a response by the international community."


Particularly troubling, Stavridis recently told Congress, is the trafficking networks' links to terrorism and insurgencies and their ability to undermine stability, security and sovereignty. The same networks that move narcotics, weapons and people also transport terrorist operatives, he said, and this trafficking, regardless of the commodity, bankrolls organized crime, terrorists and insurgents.


For example, drug trafficking through Europe has had a significant impact on security in Afghanistan. The Taliban made more than $150 million in 2009 alone through the sale of opium, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime estimated in its 2011 World Drug Report. That same year, the U.N. estimated that 75 to 80 metric tons of Afghan heroin reached Central and Western Europe, and another 90 metric tons transited through Central Asia to Russia.


Concerned about this growing threat, Stavridis took the lessons of U.S. Southern Command's Joint Interagency Task Force South in Florida that he previously commanded to create Eucom's smaller-scale operation from existing resources.
With fewer than 40 staff members, including representatives of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency and other U.S. government agencies focused on trafficking, it serves as a "fusion organization" matrixed to other Defense Department and U.S. government agencies. This, Scraba said, leverages military capabilities to help them operate more effectively.


"We are the cog in the wheel" that reaches out to and helps connect the other spokes, he said. That runs from providing translators to monitor known trafficking networks and technology to help federal law enforcement officials to more efficiently inspect shipping containers to teaching police dogs to sniff out drugs or explosives.


Eucom shares intelligence and lessons the military has learned supporting U.S. interagency partners' counternarcotics efforts in the United States, Scraba said. The command recently ran a conference for 14 partner nations, providing law enforcement communications training and sharing lessons learned in running an operations center.
"This gets at the center of gravity for why we exist: to support our U.S. agency efforts," Scraba said.


"The bottom line," he explained, "is that trafficking is a network of networks. And in order for us – the United States and international community – to have the best chance of disrupting and dismantling illicit trafficking, we, too, have to be a network of networks.
"That is the U.S. military, supporting the U.S. interagency and then collaborating with international organizations that share the same concern and have the same objectives with regards of disrupting and dismantling illicit trafficking," he added.


Just eight months after it stood up, the new Eucom task force is getting a warm reception from interagency and international partners alike, who recognize the contribution it can make to their countertrafficking efforts.


All recognize the extent of the problem, Scraba said, and the need to work together to confront it.


"There is no question that it is a problem, and there is no question that this is a team sport and that it requires the international community working together to combat this," he said.
That's essential to disrupting trafficking and making Europe inhospitable to traffickers, he said. Americans should care that it succeeds, he added, because it's a matter of "invest now, save later."


"It is clear and documented that trafficking distorts economies. It erodes sovereignties. It corrupts democracies. It accelerates extremism. It weakens allies and feeds terrorism," he said.


"All that adds up to a threat to the U.S. homeland," he continued. "And that, from a national security perspective, is the 'So what?' as far as why trafficking is such a significant issue here in Europe."

U.S. EUROPEAN COMMAND LISTS FOUR BASIC PRIORITIES

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE 
Ensuring ready forces is U.S. European Command's highest priority. Here, paratroopers from Special Operations Command Europe descend after jumping from an MC-130 Combat Talon aircraft over Malmsheim Drop Zone, Germany, Dec. 9, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Isaac A. Graham

Priorities Chart Way Forward for Eucom
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
STUTTGART, Germany, May 4, 2012 - Using the new defense strategic guidance as its roadmap, officials at U.S. European Command say they've fixed their compasses on four basic priorities: maintaining ready forces, completing a successful transition in Afghanistan, sustaining strategic partnerships and countering transnational threats.
Keeping a steely-eyed focus on these priorities is particularly important at a time of limited resources, Navy Vice Adm. Charles Martoglio, Eucom's deputy commander, told American Forces Press Service.

"Our highest priority is readiness to execute the contingency plans that we are responsible for," he said. "That goes directly back to the Constitution that says the military's mission is to fight and win the nation's wars."

That, explained Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, the command's deputy commander for plans, policy and strategy, means being ready to act if called upon to deal with issues in a 51-country area of responsibility that stretches across the Baltics, the Balkans, the Caucasuses and the Levant.

Eucom's next priority is to complete a successful security transition in Afghanistan from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to Afghan national security forces, the admirals said. This, Montgomery explained, requires evolving from an operational role to a training role to ensure Afghan forces are prepared to accept increasing security responsibility.

"Many people don't realize that most of the non-U.S. forces in ISAF are from Europe," Martoglio said, noting that about 32,000 of the 35,000 partner forces in the coalition deploy from European soil. Eucom has been active over the past decade helping to organize, train and equip forces from countries not financially or logistically capable of doing so themselves.

"Some would say we should expect more from our European partners," Martoglio acknowledged, noting the 90,000 U.S. troop  contribution to ISAF. "But I would say that if it weren't for those 32,000 European partners there, we would require 32,000 more Americans."

As the coalition draws down forces in Afghanistan, Eucom's next priority, he said, will be to preserve the strategic partnerships solidified there.

"We have been alongside NATO, or NATO has been alongside us, for 10 years in Afghanistan and Iraq," Martoglio said. "We have a combat edge that has been honed by 10 years of working together in very challenging circumstances.

"So as we come out of Iraq and Afghanistan, how do we sustain that combat edge over time, particularly when everybody's budgets are being significantly constrained?" he asked. "Our job here is to sustain the strategic partnership, the NATO alliance – that most successful coalition in history – across these difficult financial times."

NATO never has been at a higher level of readiness to conduct contingency operations, Montgomery said. He cited the immediacy of a mission that's brought interoperability within ISAF to its highest level ever, but could begin deteriorating over time without a concerted effort to preserve it.
"The question," he said, echoing Martolgio, "is how do we preserve all the investment that's been made over the last eight to 10 years – an investment of not just money, but blood and sweat, working together in both Iraq and Afghanistan?"

Martoglio emphasized the importance of continued engagement and training, both to take new strategic partnerships forged with Eastern European nations to the next level, and to maintain other ISAF contributors' high-end capabilities.

"We have to look toward ensuring interoperability of those forces and routinely training together so that if we have to conduct high-end operations, we have the ability to work together from a technical perspective, and the skills to work together from a training perspective," he said.

Looking forward, Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, the Eucom commander, identified four specific countries for increased engagement: Israel, Russia, Turkey and Poland.

Israel is one of the United States' closest allies, Martoglio said, noting the U.S. commitment to help in deterring its adversaries. Russia has a major impact on security in Europe and the world, and forging a more positive bilateral relationship is essential, he said.

Turkey, a rising regional power and NATO partner, is able to influence events in parts of the world the United States simply can't. And Poland, an increasingly influential leader in Northeastern Europe, is on a trajectory toward extending its economic and democratic impact beyond the immediate region.

These partnerships will be vital in confronting new and emerging threats in a rapidly-changing security environment, Martoglio said, particularly transnational threats that no one country can tackle alone. These include violent extremist organizations, cyber attacks, ballistic missiles and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

NATO addressed these concerns at its 2010 summit in Lisbon, Portugal, tasking member countries to contribute to various capabilities as part of its new 10-year strategic concept. The United States took on a significant ballistic missile defense tasking, Montgomery noted, and is working within NATO and U.S. structures to address other challenges.

Stavridis, testifying before Congress in March, said these evolving threats demand the steady commitment that the trans-Atlantic alliance has demonstrated since its inception more than six decades ago.

"Working together with our historic partners on these critical security challenges of the 21st century to wisely leverage the significant investments that America has made for over half a century will be more important than ever in light of the fiscal constraints that we all face," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Stavridis credited the men and women of Eucom who work alongside allies and partners across the dynamic European theater every day pursuing common security interests and as a result, forward defense of the United States.

 "With every action, they are shaping the rapidly changing world we live in today, in order to provide the ensuring capabilities, security structures and trust we need for a stronger world tomorrow," he said.