Establishing a Middle East Institute for Security Cooperation

This paper presents a case for establishing a Middle East Institute for Security Cooperation MEISC in the United States. Moreover, it advocates the creation of an education and training program that develops a professional, military and law enforcement, noncommissioned officer corps for U.S. allies in the Middle East. Current security assistance activities, which focus on equipment sales and training, fail to develop Gulf Arab states real military and security capacity. These activities do not address the root causes of their continued poor performance - the lack of an educated, professional noncommissioned officer corps. Establishing the Middle East Institute for Security Cooperation would help diminish the causal mechanisms that perpetuate the tendency for Arab militaries to underperform and resist full transformation. MEISC will expand the academic and professional training level of the Arab noncommissioned officer corps, thereby facilitating its transformation and the building of real partnership capacity for U.S. allies in the Middle East. Real change to the status quo requires a new paradigm for security assistance in the Middle East the Middle East Institute for Security Cooperation can provide that change.