Seventy-eight senior military and civilian leaders from 42 countries and territories were the latest graduates of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies’ “Comprehensive Crisis Management Course.  The course began on February 18th and culminated March 19th at a ceremony when Fellows were presented their graduation certificates by APCSS Director Lieutenant General (ret.) Ed Smith.

Fellows attending the course came from American Samoa, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Chile, China, Columbia, Comoros, Egypt, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Micronesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Saipan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, United States, Uruguay and Vietnam.

The four-week CCM course takes a comprehensive approach to CCM operations and activities.  Course content focuses on three broad topic areas:  (1) crisis assessments and condition setting, (2)transitions across the prevent/prepare/respond cycle and (3) addresses during and post-crisis reconstruction.  In addition to this conceptual frame work, the CCM course also addresses CCM-task coalition building and operations, inter-agency coordination, stability trends analysis and preventive activities, as well as international interventions, post-emergency reconstruction, transition shaping and strategic communications.  The course curriculum is generally divided into three major blocks:  (1) framing the CCM problem, (2) elements of stability and (3) making collaborative CCM operations work.

APCSS is a United States Department of Defense regional study, conference and research center.  The center’s mission is to educate, connect and empower security practitioners to advance Asia-Pacific security.

Since opening in 1995 APCSS has had representatives from 72 countries and four international organizations attend the courses at the Center for a total of 4,799 alumni.  The Center has also hosted or co-hosted conferences or seminars with over 7,200 participants.