Marshall Center

This bilateral US and German institution is a leading transatlantic security and defense educational institution dedicated to the creation of a more stable security environment.

Through competitive educational programs, the College of International and Security Studies plays a major role in the Center’s work to advance democratic defense institutions and relations, to advance peaceful engagement, and to enhance enduring partnerships between the nations of North America, Europe and Eurasia.

The Conference Center is the premier outreach activity of the Marshall Center, providing international discussion promoting specific US, German and international security cooperation interests. The Conference Center has five strategic areas of concentration:

Combating Terrorism
National Security Planning
Crisis Management
Civil-Military Relations
Organized Crime

For more information please refer to the George C. Marshall Center web page.

Military-to-Military Contact Program

The Military-to-Military Contact Program addresses a broad spectrum of issues ranging from civil-military relations to NCO education. This program is the point of entry for growing security cooperation programs and other bilateral initiatives. It cannot, however, provide training or fund activities authorized under other programs.

The Military-To-Military Contact Program consists of five types of events:

Traveling contact team visits go to the host nation and share information on US military operations. This is the most effective type of event for reaching the greatest number of mid-grade Slovenian military personnel.
Familiarization visits send limited numbers of Slovenian military personnel to US installations in Europe or the United States when the scope or level of the event make a traveling contact team impractical.
A shadow familiarization tour is similar to a familiarization visit, but limited to two Slovenian personnel. Slovenian participants observe their counterparts in day-to-day operations within an area of interest. The goal is for the visitor(s) to observe and work with their counterpart performing operations.
Conferences are conducted when multiple nations have mutual interest in a subject.

A limited number of individual exchanges of subject matter experts (staff officers or NCOs) allow in-depth exposure to US operations. An exchange event is conducted (usually for a 30-day period) such that a Slovenian military participant literally exchanges duty positions with their US military counterpart. The exchange is a two-part, reciprocal event where the US participant(s) go first for up to 14 days and the Slovenian participant(s) will travel to a US military location for up to 30 days.

It is critical that Slovenian participants have an excellent command of the English language.

State Partnership Program (SPP)
The SPP provides access to experts within the state of Colorado on the full range of military-to-military, military-to-civilian and civilian-to-civilian activities. The US Ambassador to Slovenia has expressed a desire to foster increased military, civic, economic, cultural, and education opportunities between Colorado and Slovenia. The intent is to build upon the relationships that have been developed during the last 12 years of the Colorado National Guard’s State Partnership Program relationship with the Republic of Slovenia. During this time, military and civic leaders have been part of an exchange program which focused primarily on Slovenia’s military and their pursuit of membership in NATO. Now that Slovenia is a member of NATO, the intent is to do more between Colorado and Slovenia to support one another and at the same time improve the strategic objectives of both Slovenia and the United States. Therefore, the State Partnership Program within Slovenia is challenging the status quo and attempting to develop new objectives and find the funding to support them.