In Brief: Clarifying the Concept of “Partnership” in National Security
Over the last few years, the term partnership has spread like wildfire through official U.S. national security guidance documents and rhetoric. At the Department of Defense (DOD), which spearheaded the proliferation of the term, partnership has been used to refer to a broad array of civilian as well as military activities in support of national security.1 At other U.S. government agencies, and at the White House, the use of the term partnership has been echoed and applied even more broadly-not only in the national security arena, but also to all facets of U.S. relationships with foreign partners. Partnership is not new in either theory or practice. A lack of sufficient strategic direction regarding the use of the term could raise a series of potential concerns for Congress.