Counterinsurgency Conference

On September 28-29, the Departments of State and Defense co-sponsored a conference on "Counterinsurgency in the 21st Century: Creating a National Framework" at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC. The purpose of the conference was to launch the development of a national counterinsurgency framework and implementation plan that will enable the United States to defeat the threat to peace and security in the 21st century posed by transnational insurgent groups.

Dr. John Hillen, the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, and Dr. Jeb Nadaner, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations, were the conference co-hosts. The conference brought together a variety of U.S. and international experts on counterinsurgency from both the public and the private sector.

The conference Keynote Address was delivered by Dr. Eliot Cohen of Johns Hopkins University and Representative Ike Skelton, the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, spoke at the conference dinner. Other speakers included Lieutenant General Dave Petraeus, Commander, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center; James Kunder, Acting Deputy Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development; Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely, Director, UK Defense Academy; Ms Sarah Sewall, Carr Center, Harvard University, and Ambassador Eric Edelman, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

The conference and conclusions will be made public in a report to be published in November.

Counterinsurgency in the 21st Century: Creating a National Framework
The Horizon Ballroom

The Reagan Building and International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004

September 28-29, 2006

Day 1
0730	Registration/Continental Breakfast
0830	Administrative Remarks	Mr. Thomas Cooney, Master of Ceremonies
0840	Opening Remarks	John Hillen, Ph.D. Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs Jeb Nadaner, Ph.D. Deputy Asst. Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations
0900	Keynote Address	Eliot Cohen, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins/SAIS "The American Tradition of Counterinsurgency"
0930	Topical Address	LTG Dave Petraeus, Combined Arms Center "The Army’s Response to Counterinsurgency"
1000	Break
1015	Panel 1 - COIN Fundamentals and Best Practices Moderator: Dr. Conrad Crane, Director, US Army Military History Institute Dr. David Kilcullen, Senior Strategist, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism Col. H.R. McMaster, Ph.D., International Institute for Strategic Studies Dr. Kalev Sepp, Naval Postgraduate School
1145	Topical Remarks	James Kunder, Deputy Administrator (Acting), USAID
1200	Lunch (In working group rooms)
1245	Panel 2 – Creating a National COIN Capability - What would this look like? (Horizon ballroom) Moderator: Mr. Chris Donnelly, Head of Research, UK Defence Academy Dr. Jeb Nadaner, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations Amb. John Herbst, Coordinator for Stabilization and Reconstruction Mr. Jerry Hoover, Interim Police Commissioner, UN CIVPOL Mission to Sudan Dr. Montgomery McFate, Cultural Anthropologist, Institute for Defense Analyses
1400	Introduction to Working Groups – Dr. John Hillen (Followed by transition to working group rooms)
1415-1545	Working Groups (Co-chairs) A Interagency Interoperability (Michele Flournoy, Barbara Stephenson) – Room: Continental B B Governance and Civil Society (Neil Levine, Rick Barton) – Room: Meridian C C Media Relations and Public Diplomacy (Linda Robinson, Sean McCormack) – Meridian B D Development in COIN (Stewart Patrick, Elisabeth Kvitashvili) – Room: Continental C
1545-1615	Break (Horizon ballroom)
1615-1730	Working Group Summary Reports - Co-Chairs (Horizon ballroom)
1730	Conferee Reception (Working group rooms Continental B and C)
1830	DV Dinner (by invitation)
Day 2 (All events are in the Horizon ballroom)
0730	Continental Breakfast
0830	Opening Address	LTG Sir John Kiszely Director, UK Defence Academy "A British Perspective on Counterinsurgency in the 21st Century: Creating a National Framework"
0900	Topical Remarks	Ms. Sarah Sewall, Carr Center, Harvard University "A Strategic Framework for Interagency COIN"
0930	Break
1000	Panel 3 - Roadmap to Success in Global COIN Moderator: Dr. David Kilcullen, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism Mr. Daniel Sullivan, Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Dr. Patrick Cronin, International Institute for Strategic Studies Mr. David Gompert, The RAND Corporation Ms. Beth Cole DeGrasse, U.S. Institute for Peace
1200	Lunch
1245	Address	Ambassador Eric Edelman, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy "Counterinsurgency, Past and Present"
1400	Concluding remarks	Assistant Secretary of State John Hillen
Post-conference deliverables - Plan of Action and Milestones (POAM) for COIN strategy development - Working group structure and schedule to support POAM - List of possible products (NSPD, handbook, doctrine, resourcing plans, etc.) - Agreement to create COIN instruction syllabus - USG COIN Center, in collaboration with OSD’s Center for Complex Operations