U.S.-CREST (Center for Research and Education on Strategy
and Technology) is a private, non-profit public policy research institute
incorporated in 1989. U.S.-CREST central goal is to promote public
understanding of the far reaching interactions between international relations,
defense, and science and technology. The Center’s interests lie above all
in the impact of these interactions on transatlantic relations. Within this
framework, U.S.-CREST also seeks to foster a broader French/European-American
dialogue addressing various economic, political, and security policy issues of
common concern to the United States
and Europe. U.S.-CREST activities include:
·
independent research on topics of public
interest;
·
publication of reports, articles and books;
·
transatlantic exchanges of scholars; and
·
organization of
conferences and seminars.
In furtherance of these objectives and activities,
U.S.-CREST cooperates with the Fondation
pour la Recherche Stratégique
(FRS), Paris, France,
and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in the United
Kingdom. U.S.-CREST also partners with DCI-STRATCO, the research branch of the French
firm Défense Conseil
International, for certain
studies.
For U.S.-CREST’s
News and Media Sources and Research Links on Transatlantic Defense Issues,
click here
U.S.-CREST RESEARCH
Multinational
Experiment 4 (MNE4)
U.S.-CREST has been providing
analysis for the French Ministry of Defense for MNE4. Dominique Orsini, Christian Delanghe and
Anne Kovacs have participated in a number of workshops and Limited Objective
Experiments in the run-up to MN4, focusing on the effects-based approach to
planning, execution and assessment, the strategic context and strategic-level
planning mechanisms, and on multinational, interagency coordination. U.S.-CREST
will also contribute to the overall analysis for Joint Forces Command.
Institutional
Relations between the United States and the European Union
This study, which began in winter 2005 and is still
on-going, seeks to look at the U.S.-EU relationship in various domains, namely:
combating terrorism, crisis management, defense capabilities, the Broader
Middle East and the Europe’s neighbors. The study
seeks to understand the points of tension and/or disagreement and to emphasize
the zones of convergence in order to encourage greater transatlantic
cooperation.
Network-Centric
Operations
U.S.-CREST conducted a two-part study on network-centric operations
from 2003 to 2005, sponsored by the French Ministry of Defense. The study
sought to underline recent evolutions in terms of net-centricity in the United
States and several European countries (the United
Kingdom, Germany,
Sweden)
and proposed recommendations for networking French capabilities.
U.S. Interagency Coordination
The purpose of this study was to explain how interagency
coordination functions within the U.S.
government and why the issue has gained such importance over the years. The study
also discusses the most recent initiatives to improve coordination and analyzes
the implications of the emphasis on interagency coordination for America’s
allies and partners.
The study describes a number of U.S.
government departments and agencies, and explains the structure and
organization of the NSC system. It then focuses on the evolution of interagency
coordination during the Clinton
administration as a result of the U.S.’s
engagement in “complex contingency operations” and the efforts that
were progressively made to codify mostly
ad hoc solutions. The most significant part of the study deals with the
changes that have come about since 9/11, namely the increased interagency
coordination required to better protect the homeland, pursue the GWOT and stabilize
post-conflict states. Finally, U.S.-CREST discusses the implications of this
increased interest in interagency coordination for the U.S.’s
multinational partners, in particular in the event of a U.S.-led coalition
operation. The study was finished in early 2005 and also helped prepare the
interagency aspects of MNE4.
Building
a comprehensive plan for an ad hoc
coalition, enabling crisis resolution and a viable exit strategy for
multinational partners (2004)
This study drew from lessons from past operations to
identify the elements relevant to the development of a coherent
political-military plan and to deduct from them an approach to generic planning
for coalition operations. The first part of the study was dedicated to the
analysis of crises whose exit and conflict termination strategies were chosen
either for their successes or for their failures: the examples of Suez,
Somalia or Kosovo
illustrated the difficulty and reality of the problem. The analyses were
undertaken from a national perspective, and took into account the international
context in which the events unfolded, as well as the interactions between
actors (namely the European Union, the United Nations and NATO) with regards to
the support and legitimacy they can bring. In the second part of the study,
U.S.-CREST developed a guide for establishing a comprehensive
political-military plan that takes into account conflict termination from the
start.
Future
Military Coalitions: The Transatlantic Challenge
Implications
of a Common European Security and Defense Policy (CESDP) on future
transatlantic military capabilities
This project builds on the recently completed
quadripartite (France,
Germany, the U.K.
the U.S.) study
of coalition military operations. It convened a political/military working
group of experts and officials from the United
States and Europe to
explore through examination of potential future crisis scenarios how CESDP
could affect the force composition, military capabilities, system developments,
conduct and potential success of transatlantic versus Europe-only operations.
An important aspect of the project is the identification of equipment
capability gaps, and the examination of the multinational and national
processes and apparatus for rectifying these. Taking the NATO Defense
Capabilities Initiative (DCI) and the EU’s
inventory of capabilities as starting points, the project helps establish a
focused set of equipment capability priorities for the next fifteen years.
View a copy of the final project report, published
September 2002
Quadripartite Working Group on Coalition
Military Operations
In 2000, U.S.-CREST completed a quadripartite project on
coalition military operations. Recognizing the challenges as well as
opportunities that the incorporation of rapidly moving information technologies
into military systems present for coalition operations, U.S.-CREST solicited
the participation of FRS (France), SWP (Germany),
and RUSI (UK) in a study designed to examine how their countries can better
cooperate to harness information technologies and enhance coalition
cohesiveness. U.S. DoD, and the defense ministries in France,
Germany, and
the United Kingdom,
all agreed to participate in the study in an advisory capacity. In April
2000, the project findings and recommendations were briefed to the biannual
five power meeting of National Armament Directors.
(Final report)
Tri-national Project on Deterring NBC
Weapons Use in Regional Conflict
In 1998 U.S.-CREST lead a tri-national working group on
deterring nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons use in regional
conflict. The working group assembled by U.S.-CREST comprised of U.S., French,
and British experts, officials, and military officers, assessed approaches to
deterring a regional adversary from using NBC weapons against deployed Western
forces, against the territory of regional allies, and as a somewhat longer term
threat, against the territory of Western countries themselves.
French-American Security Symposia
The most recent of these symposia organized by U.S.-CREST
was held on January 13, 1997
in Washington, DC,
on the lessons of Bosnia
for NATO’s renovation (a report will be published in March 1997). Past
symposia were held in October 1993 and November 1994, assembling American,
French, and other European government officials and experts to identify ways to
further bilateral security cooperation. U.S.-CREST published widely acclaimed
reports after the first two symposia that provided important insight into the
current evolution of French policy toward NATO.
(See U.S.-CREST’s
Publication List)
Conferences on Transatlantic Armament
Cooperation
U.S.-CREST organized in February 1995 and in April 1996
conferences in Paris featuring working group sessions that provided an
unparalleled opportunity for defense officials and industrialists with
research, engineering, procurement and policy responsibilities to meet and work
together on an international basis. Plenary session speakers included national
armament directors from the major Atlantic Alliance nations. A U.S.-CREST
report (July 1996) on both conferences’ findings included policy
implementation steps toward further cooperation.
(See U.S.-CREST’s Publication
List)
U.S.-French Working Group on Counter
proliferation
U.S.-CREST organized a U.S.-French working group on
counter proliferation, which convened meetings in both Washington and Paris in 1994-95.
The working group explored the development and potential coordination of
defense counter proliferation policies, including their relation to
nonproliferation efforts. The final working group report (June 1995) contains
analysis and recommendations (including executive summaries in both English
& French) for consideration by U.S.
and French policy makers.
(See U.S.-CREST’s
Publication List)
The Tocqueville Connection
The French-American Dialogue program was significantly
enhanced in January 1996 with the creation of The Tocqueville Connection, a
weekly internet magazine that features news about France
in an English-language format (www.ttc.org). It is a
unique undertaking, covering major topics such as defense, foreign policy, and
politics and society. In addition to its up-to-date news coverage by a team of
journalists based in Paris, TTC
also includes op-eds, interviews, and letters to the
editor.
U.S.-CREST’S TEAM
Dr. Jean-François Delpech,
President – Dr. Delpech graduated from the École
Polytechnique (Paris), has a M.Sc in Electrical
Engineering (Stanford University),
and a Ph.D in Physics (Université
de Paris). Jean-François Delpech is Directeur de Recherche, Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique,
and has worked extensively on issues at the interface of technology and
security policy. He has served as chairman of the working group and senior advisory
board of the project on coalition military operations, as well as of other
U.S.-CREST multinational working group projects.
Dominique Orsini, Director – Col. (Ret.) Orsini
graduated from the Military Academy of Saint-Cyr and from the Ecole de Guerre (Paris),
and received a Master’s Degree in Operations Research (Université de Paris VI). Dominique Orsini served over 25 years in the French Army. His
experience in transatlantic security and defense issues ranges from operational
planning activities in a NATO context as a staff officer, to political and
military exchanges as an attaché in Washington,
DC. He also took part in two international
cooperative development programs for future military systems.
Lieutenant
General (Ret) Christian Delanghe, Project Director
is a graduate of Saint-Cyr (1963-1965), the universities of Rennes and Reims, the US Air Defense
Advance Course in Fort Bliss, the Senior Command and War College, the Center
for Higher Military Studies and the National Defense
Institute in Paris. His command experience includes the 51st Air Defense Regiment in Germany, the 2nd Armored Division in France, the
Multinational Division South-East within the NATO Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in
Bosnia. General Delanghe
created and commanded the French “Training and Doctrine Command” in
Paris, where he developed the new
doctrine of “mastering violence”. His military career also includes
several staff assignments, as chief of staff of the III Corps in Lille, senior analyst in Military
intelligence agency, and head of the plans, policy and operations division (Emploi) at the
Joint Staff in Paris. General Delanghe has been contributing to
U.S-CREST activities as project director since he retired from the Army in
2001, and is Vice President of the “Maréchal Leclerc Foundation” in Paris.
Dr. Robert Grant, Senior Research Associate – Dr. Grant obtained a Ph.D in Political Science from the Institut
d’Études Politiques
de Paris. Robert Grant was Senior Consultant at ERC International from 1985 to
1990 and freelance consultant for the Institute for Defense Analyses before
joining U.S.-CREST in July 1990. He is currently in residence in England,
close to London. He has worked and
written on a broad range of transatlantic security issues, including defense
responses to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, U.S.-European
armaments cooperation, coalition military operations, NATO adaptation, and
French defense policy. Dr. Grant has served as director of different U.S.-CREST
multinational projects described above.
Anne Kovacs, Research Associate Anne Kovacs obtained a B.A. in
Political Science from Yale University in 2001, and a Master’s degree in
Security Studies and Conflict Resolution from the Institut
d’Etudes Politiques
de Paris (Sciences Po) in 2003. During her time at Sciences Po she participated
in two exchange programs, spending one semester at the Fletcher School of Law
and Diplomacy (2002) and another at the French Military Academy of Saint-Cyr
(2003). Since joining U.S.-CREST in 2004, Anne Kovacs has researched and
written about U.S.
and multinational interagency coordination, strategic- and operational-level
planning, and U.S.-EU relations in broad terms.
FUNDING
U.S.-CREST is funded by tax-deductible contributions from U.S.
and European foundations, corporations, and individuals. These contributions
are evenly balanced between U.S.
and European as well as between corporate and non-corporate sources.
U.S.-CREST
Center for Research and Education on
Strategy and Technology
1911 N. Fort Myer Drive, Suite 601
Arlington, VA 22209
Phone: 703/243-6908 Fax: 703/243-7175
e-mail address: uscrest@uscrest.org
February
2006