What is a country-specific security cooperation section?

Security cooperation planning, like all joint planning, is conducted using the JPP described in JP 5-0. National-level strategy and defense-planning documents stipulate strategic guidance for the combatant command (CCMD).

These guidance documents provide the “ends.” CCMD planners determine how the CCMD is going to achieve these “ends.” During development of the Theater Strategy and the CCMD Campaign Plan (CCP), the “ways” are identified. Finally, the “means”, individual activities, events, operations, and investments, also known as inputs, are programmed by various planners and managers and laid out in the Country-Specific Security Cooperation Section (CSCS) of the CCP.

CCPs and CSCSs should integrate all SC activities, events, operations, and investments (inputs) with CCMD and component posture, resources, requirements, and plans in order to lay the foundations needed for any contingency plans. If the U.S. or PN has identified a “capability gap,” and the U.S. wants or needs that PN to develop a certain capability as part of a contingency plan, the development of that capability needs to be part of the respective CSCS. Ultimately, the plan to interact with PN should guide the SCO in all SC activities with the PN.

In many ways, CSCS development is relatively straightforward and not that difficult. However, cutting corners during the initial assessment phase leads to serious conflicts with stakeholders not addressing the actual problem or doing so in an unacceptable manner. This is particularly true in countries with developing militaries or a weak political system, leaving an assessment of the plan more open to interpretation.

Plan development is, at its heart, the simple act of writing the plan. Currently, joint doctrine does not exist for the format of a CSCS. Typically, CSCSs are found as an appendix to the CCP. While currently there is no set doctrine for a CSCS, some of the recommended components of a CSCS are as follows:

• Country Assessment
• Country Objectives
• Reference to the CCP and Integrated Country Strategy (ICS) directly
• Concept of Engagement
• Synchronization Matrix
• Coordinating Instructions

PPD-23 requires SC planning to fully integrate with other DoW agencies, the DOS, and the executive branch. The CSCS should both inform and be informed by the embassy’s ICS, thus demonstrating interagency integration. Likewise, the DoW country-planning process forms a significant input to the embassy’s ICS and supporting Mission Resource Request (MRR), which feeds Title 22 program requirements into the Foreign Operations budget. Plans are assessed periodically for effectiveness and relevance. Updates are produced as strategic conditions or funding changes.