WHINSEC, An Opportunity for All
On June 24, 2024, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) welcomed its ninth commandant, U.S. Army Colonel Eldridge Singleton. Diálogo had the opportunity to speak with Col. Singleton during his visit to U.S. Southern Command’s headquarters in Doral, Florida in early September. A seasoned foreign officer with posts around the world and more than two decades of service, Col. Singleton now leads and mentors soldiers and civilian personnel at the Western Hemisphere premiere educational training institute.
Diálogo: In June 2024, you assumed the duty of commandant of WHINSEC. What are your priorities in this new role?
U.S. Army Colonel Eldridge Singleton, WHINSEC commandant: For me, the biggest priority that we have is making sure that we provide the best professional military education and training that we possibly can, based in human rights and democracy, so that we can improve the interoperability of our forces with our forces and our partners and allies in the countries of the Organization of American States.
Diálogo: You are a seasoned foreign officer, having served in many parts of the world, and very importantly, as a defense attaché throughout the region, including Belize, Jamaica, Bolivia, and Haiti. How will your experience shape your decisions at WHINSEC?
Col. Singleton: being an attaché, as well as being a security cooperation officer, also being involved in security assistance underneath the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command, those all gave me unique perspectives into different ways to look at what is sometimes a very similar problem set: How to do the best job of telling the story of our partner nations and their interoperability with our nation to our senior leaders, as well as to their senior leaders. The other aspect is looking at how to create and establish programs that build partner capacity and that assist those foreign nations into building some sort of capability, to support an operation, an activity, or an initiative. For us, it’s a two-way street, and working at an embassy, seeing that mutual collaboration, is extremely impactful. Lastly, bridging the gap between the information and the activities at times comes down to the material, and the way that we structure those programs, and how our nations work together in order to build security assistance capabilities to respond to those needs are extremely important. In the case of WHINSEC, when it comes to training and education, that is one of those security assistance activities that dovetails into security cooperation, and these cannot be separated from one another.
Diálogo: WHINSEC has been the professional military education center of excellence for the Americas for more than 20 years, graduating an average of 1,200 students from military and security forces of the region each year. How important is it for security forces of the region to be able to learn in an environment such as WHINSEC?
Col. Singleton: I think it’s absolutely imperative for the success of our nations to work together in the regions and the sub regions of the Western Hemisphere. Many countries have two, three, four different nations that neighbor them, and when it comes to transnational organized crime, when it comes to climate change, how we respond has to be in a unitary, collaborative environment. What better place to do that than at an establishment like WHINSEC, where you get multiple countries together in a different environment, where they are not only able to better interoperate, but they are also able to understand individual cultures, individual perspectives, and individual mechanisms, and how to bring those together to collaborate. And WHINSEC is just an amazing place to do that.
Diálogo: How important is it for WHINSEC to continue to educate, train, and also exchange experiences with the region’s professionals who attend the institute?
Col. Singleton: This is one of the things that we have to do. But instead of talking about our partners and allies first, let’s talk about the experience that comes to our U.S. soldiers that take part in our classes, both in Spanish and the few courses that we teach in English. They get the opportunity to understand what our partners and allies see, and what they expect from us when we come to the table to provide some sort of support and assistance. This also allows them to understand what it is that the United States Army and the Department of Defense expect when we join and coordinate with our partners and allies. Being able to coordinate and collaborate in that space is vital.
Diálogo: What have been some of the recent changes in the institute’s curriculum to adapt to the evolving demands of multinational operations?
Col. Singleton: We look at the NORTHCOM [U.S. Northern Command] and SOUTHCOM theater campaign strategies as a fundamental space to explore the development of a curriculum, but in that same space, we also have to look at what is going on in the broader scale of global events. For instance, we look at the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, we look at the expansion of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and their influence throughout the region. For us, this is very important to make sure our courses are relevant. How do we do that? The Army in itself, underneath the Army University, develop courseware for our Command General Staff College, and works with our Maneuver Center of Excellence for their Maneuver Captains Career course to make sure that we are taking those lessons learned from the conflict in Ukraine, our engagement interaction with the PRC, as well as what is happening in Gaza, in order to integrate them into our courseware in a way that is consistent.
Diálogo: The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Program has been a crucial security cooperation and effort tool for the region. How does WHINSEC, in addition to its yearly WPS symposium, promote gender integration?
Col. Singleton: We’ve been integrating with NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM’s WPS Initiative from the very start. WPS isn’t about numbers. It isn’t about the quantity of women we see in those different formations. It’s making sure that women’s perspectives are very much included in the prevention of conflict as well as in the response, in conflict or disaster recovery. Our organization has three gender advisors on staff. We have five gender focal points that are all trained at the Department of Defense’s courseware level. It is crucial to us that we not only promote those ideas and activities, but that we are in alignment with what the U.S. government and our partner nations and allies are doing.
Diálogo: WHINSEC recently collaborated with SOUTHCOM-sponsored exercise PANAMAX 24. In what capacity did WHINSEC participate, and how important is it for the institutie to take part in multinational exercises?
Col. Singleton: WHINSEC provided instructors and observers to PANAMAX. The first part was to work in the bilateral portion of the activity where the United States and Panama collaborated in joint training, military decision-making processes, and the incident command response, programs and systems. This was so that we understood how to communicate and what were the required outputs to have an effective response. From there, we transitioned to observing and seeing how this was implemented in a bilateral tabletop exercise. We then expanded into phase two, that is the multinational aspect.
Diálogo: What are some of WHINSEC’s upcoming events, exchanges, or engagements that partner nations should keep an eye out for?
Col. Singleton: One event we’re anticipating will be the week of March 10, 2025, for our annual Women, Peace, and Security Symposium. We’re looking to expand that program, as well as our Board of Visitors Conference, which is really where the public gets the opportunity to look at and ask questions about what we’re doing at WHINSEC. It’s a great opportunity for us to showcase the work that we do, but apart from that, WHINSEC is involved in CANSEC [Caribbean Nations Security Conference], CENTSEC [Central American Security Conference], and SOUTHDEC [South American Defense Conference]. Any place where SOUTHCOM, NORTHCOM, U. S. Army South, and U. S. Army North, engage, WHINSEC is there. We are always willing to engage and interact with anyone that may have a question about WHINSEC or who may seek an opportunity to teach or study at WHINSEC.
Diálogo: Col. Singleton, is there anything you would like to add?
Col. Singleton: What people sometimes fail to realize is that WHINSEC is not just an organization designed for the military. WHINSEC is open to military, academics, and civil servants from different countries. We receive members of the U.S. Department of State and Homeland Security, and personnel from different countries’ Foreign Affairs Ministry and Interior Ministry come and attend our courses. We also have partner nations instructors; so, we have opportunities for students, instructors, as well as guest lecturers and fellows and interns. These are some of the great and wonderful opportunities that we have that I think sometimes are overshadowed by the military moniker that sits on WHINSEC, but WHINSEC is really an institute that’s open for all.
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