State Partnership Program

The State Partnership Program (SPP) is a joint program of the <a href="/facts/United_States_Department_of_Defense/dWAvf7e3">United States Department of Defense</a> (DoD) and the individual <a href="/facts/U.S._state/PFwcRIYQ">states</a>, <a href="/facts/Unincorporated_territories_of_the_United_States/B9xxaPTo">territories</a>, and <a href="/facts/Washington,_D.C./enXPK156">District of Columbia</a>. The program and the concept originated in 1993 as a simplified form of the previously established (1992) Joint Contact Team Program (JCTP). The JCTP aimed at assisting former <a href="/facts/Warsaw_Pact/SLEsUSAS">Warsaw Pact</a> and <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a> Republics, now independent, to form democracies and defense forces of their own. It featured long-term presence of extensive and expensive teams of advisory specialists. The SPP shortened the advisory presence to a <a href="/facts/United_States_National_Guard/oMCltGFe">United States National Guard</a> unit of a designated state, called a partner, which would conduct joint exercises with the host. It is cheaper, has a lesser American presence, and can comprise contacts with civilian agencies. Today, both programs are funded.
The SPP is widespread. The JCTP is recommended when more extensive support is needed. Sometimes the names are interchangeable. A large share of originally JCTP activity was subsumed by the <a href="/facts/NATO/dCeTddMY">NATO</a> <a href="/facts/Partnership_for_Peace/pJxvW61z">Partnership for Peace</a> (PfP) program made active in 1994. It prepares nations for membership in NATO. A typical path for a candidate has been SPP, PfP and then NATO. Once started, SPP activities appear to continue regardless of what other memberships a host nation may have. By nature the program creates close friends and allies.
Previously, and currently outside the program, the Guard was and is subject to a jurisdictional duality: it can be either Federally active or not. If inactive it is a <a href="/facts/Reserve_components_of_the_United_States_Armed_Forces/KKmhUArF">reserve component</a> only of the DoD. Its main function is as a state <a href="/facts/Militia/c7CHBd54">militia</a> under the command of the <a href="/facts/Governor_(United_States)/Mb01HzEt">Governor</a> through the <a href="/facts/State_adjutant_general/x388Tdap">Adjutant General</a> of the state or equivalent officer of the Territory or D.C. If active, it is entirely out of the jurisdiction of the state and under the DoD, which might or might not keep its original identity, but more likely plunders it for replacements or special units of the <a href="/facts/Regular_Army_(United_States)/GuQQvmX4">Regular Army</a> or Air Force.
In the SPP, the State (or territory, etc.) and the DoD collaborate in the deployment of the unit, through the <a href="/facts/National_Guard_Bureau/1wbE78A2">National Guard Bureau</a>, and the Adjutant General of the State. The unit keeps its State identity. In the words of one source, it is "managed by the National Guard Bureau, but executed by the states." In that case there is collaboration between the state Adjutant General and the commander in the field.
The "partners" of the partnerships are the Guard units of various states and foreign nations that have requested and been granted partnerships. The program links National Guard units of U.S. States with partner countries around the world for the purpose of supporting the security cooperation objectives of the <a href="/facts/Unified_Combatant_Command/GhMUXheg">geographic Combatant Commands</a> (CCMDs). It is not quite so cut-and-dried as pure security. There are quite a number of crisis relief and humanitarian activities.

State Partnership Program open-in-new

State Partnership Program