Defensive Diplomacy

armisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, seems an unlikely place for a revolution. The postcard-perfect Alpine village near the border with Austria is better known among sports enthusiasts than among politicos. But a military education center here, established after the breakup of the Soviet Union, is quietly stoking the fires of democracy across Eastern and Central Europe.

The George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, sponsored by the U.S. and German governments but funded largely by the Pentagon, "is perhaps the most exciting endeavor in educational history," Marshall Center director Robert Kennedy says.

Kennedy's words might seem an overstatement, were the Marshall Center's goal less ambitious. Through a range of courses and conferences directed at the political and military movers and shakers of the former Soviet Bloc states, the Marshall Center seeks to influence the course of history by advancing democracy and strengthening the relationships between the United States and the nations of Central Asia and Europe. While the center's ambition is nearly matched by its obscurity in the United States and Western Europe, throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia, attendance at its courses is becoming a rite of passage for emerging leaders.

"We are not pushing any national agenda," Kennedy says. "But we are pushing democracy."

The Marshall Center's programs range from conferences lasting a few days to weeks-long courses, including an intensive 15-week executive course designed for colonels, lieutenant colonels and their civilian equivalents. The executive course includes English or German language training, computer training and courses in national security studies. Students also take field trips to Washington, where they visit Congress, the Supreme Court, the Pentagon and the State Department, and to New York, where they go to the New York Stock Exchange, the United Nations, the New York City Police Department and a major media outlet.

The Marshall Center also conducts an 18-month Foreign Area Officers training program for the Army, preparing U.S. military officers for assignments throughout Europe and Central Asia. The interaction between the U.S. students and the foreign students provides valuable networking for both groups, students and officials say.

Since 1994, the first year classes were offered at the Marshall Center, more than 700 students have completed courses offered through the center's Defense and Security Studies Program, designed for mid-level and senior civilian and military officials. Thousands of others have attended conferences sponsored by the center and participated in language training at the Foreign Language Training Center.

Many of the students who have completed courses at the Marshall Center have already been promoted to influential positions in their nations' governments. Among the Marshall Center alumni are the ministers of defense in Estonia and Georgia, four military chiefs of staff, nine general officers, nine military attachés and 17 officers assigned to NATO.

The Marshall Center aims to teach the realities of democracy, including its shortcomings, Kennedy says. "Democracy is messy, long, costly and difficult. If you are apprised of the complexities, you're less apt to be disappointed."

All students have their own room in converted barracks that feel more like a college dormitory. Perhaps most important, each room has a television and a computer with Internet access.

"When students leave the Marshall Center, they leave with a thirst for information," Kennedy says. "All of the students won't be convinced or changed, but some of them will. And that is important."

Sticker Shock

Most students also leave with vastly different notions about the West and about the nations from which their fellow classmates come, says Paul Combs, acting director of alumni affairs.

Combs' office continually administers surveys to gauge student reactions to the course work, social programs, accommodations and anything else that can be measured through surveys and questionnaires.

"We want them to want to be here," he says. "We constantly try to assess what they're thinking about virtually everything."

For some students, it is the first time they've ever been out of their country and the culture shock can be profound. Everything from the food served to the comparative wealth of Germany to the Marshall Center's nonsmoking policy can be difficult. For some Muslim students from conservative countries, especially in the summer, the sight of so many lightly clad female tourists has made it necessary for the center to provide counseling.

The center has even increased the availability of fatty meats because students complained about too many fruits and vegetables for their customary diets, Combs says.

Perhaps most troubling for students is the income disparity between the East and West. In some of the countries that send students to the Marshall Center, general officers earn less money per month than an American private. "Sometimes students will pool their relatives' money and come here expecting to buy a used car, or something like that. They get some pretty heavy sticker shock," says Combs.

To ensure students can see and experience Germany, they are paid a small per diem and, in a special exception to German customs law, are allowed to shop at the U.S. military exchange where products are discounted. Also, educational trips are incorporated into the program.

"We really want them to experience living in a democracy to the extent that they can while they're here," says Combs. "They arrive with one set of perceptions and leave with a very different set of perceptions."

The Marshall Center is unique among educational institutions in that all of its courses are offered in three languages with simultaneous translation: English, Russian and German. This is critical to the center's success and reputation, says Kennedy.

"There are brilliant people out there who don't speak English. We capture that," Kennedy says.

John P. Otjen, an American retired lieutenant general who is deputy director of the center, hopes to expand its language base even further, perhaps to include Turkish. "If we really want to impart this knowledge, then we ought to make it as easy as possible," he says.

'Magic School Bus' Effect

Aside from a rigorous academic schedule, students are encouraged to explore Germany and the cultures of their classmates. These ancillary experiences drive home the democratic messages as much as the academic instruction does, faculty and school officials say.

During one recent class trip to Bonn, school officials mistakenly assigned students from Azerbaijan and Armenia to the same hotel room. When officials later realized the potential for trouble created by forcing together two people whose nations are locked in conflict, they tried to separate the students. But the students protested and said they were enjoying getting to know each other. Prior to that experience, neither student had ever spent time with anyone from the other's country.

While such incidents may sound "hokey" to the average American, one Marshall Center official says, they represent huge breakthroughs in cross-cultural communication in parts of the world where hostilities run so deep that even getting students to communicate in a classroom is considered a large step.

"Once they move into the dorm, they are immediately part of a multicultural society," says Lt. Col. Tom Wilhelm, an instructor at the center.

A class trip to Munich immediately following the election of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder last fall became a tangible lesson in democracy. "It was the 'Magic School Bus' effect," he says, referring to the children's television show where learning takes on magical proportions. "There was a transition of government and yet it's still business as usual. [The students] see political protests as part of the fabric of a democracy. Nothing stops. There are no guns on the streets. Tomorrow you will still buy bread from the same store. That's not true everywhere. The impact of seeing that, for some of these students, was great."

Marks Deitons, counselor to the foreign minister of Latvia and a student in a recent nine-week "Leaders for the 21st Century" course, said the Marshall Center "provides a place where people are not going to be put down by saying what they think. It's a low-risk environment for developing ideas. This is very exciting. In some cultures, there is more of a culture of obedience that makes independent thought very hard."

Maj. Gen. Franz Werner, German deputy director of the center, says the intellectual freedom it encourages is intoxicating for some students. "The students are keen to learn. They're very interested and enthusiastic. We are here on more or less [neutral] territory and they can disagree without consequences. If you've never experienced that, you can't appreciate it fully."

"The students have to learn to conduct dialogue," says Werner. "This can happen here."

While the majority of students tend to be military officers, a high percentage are civilians serving either in diplomatic or ministry of defense jobs. A growing percentage of students are women. The mix is important, Werner says.

"If a politician is not able to ask the right questions of the military, then they are not able to manage the military," says Werner. While civilian control of the military is obviously a central component of democracy, the role of women in a democracy is sometimes less obvious.

"We make it clear that females will be in powerful and important positions. That's just normal," Werner says.

Just as the nations it targets are evolving, so too is the Marshall Center. "This is a new institution. We're building bridges," Kennedy says. How far the bridges span may depend on future funding. Kennedy says he would like to see more participation from the State Department, but budget cuts at State have not allowed it.

Otjen believes the Marshall Center can develop a world-class reputation for national security studies. He'd like to see a greater internationalization of the staff, incorporation of a distance learning program to provide continuing education to alumni and the participation of big-name lecturers such as former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. But achieving these goals will require substantially more money than the Marshall Center can now afford. The center's 1999 operating budget is $27.5 million, $25.6 million of which is funded by the Pentagon. Germany contributes the balance.

And even though the Pentagon budget is slated to increase over the next several years, any impact on the Marshall Center is uncertain. Center officials fought to restore most of a Pentagon-proposed cut of $900,000 to the center's 1999 budget. Still, the center may have to cut some programs to manage what now will likely be a $130,000 cut.

"The Marshall Center operates on a shoestring. We have to fight for every half-penny we get," Kennedy says.The long-term benefits of supporting the Marshall Center should outweigh short-term budget concerns, he says. "If you prevent one Bosnia, you'll have paid for this institution many times over."

Adequate funding will be critical to the center's future mission. Kennedy says: "The importance of Central Asia and the Caucasus cannot be overstated. We want to ensure they continue to grow westward, not southward, in the future."

Says Otjen: "This is an investment in the long term. It is an investment in the leaders of the future."