School of the Americas Visits The University For Peace and U.S. Army South
The 52 students of the 1998 United
States Army School of the Americas' (USARSA) Command & General Officers Course (CGSOC)
recently conducted a Central America Regional Orientation Trip to Panama, Costa Rica and
Honduras, Aug. 16-21.
Along with visiting the traditional
commands of United States Army South at Fort Clayton, Panama and Joint Task Force Bravo at
Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, the students had the distinct opportunity of being USARSA's
first CGSOC to visit the University For Peace and the InterAmerican Institute For Human
Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Created by the United Nations General
Assembly on December 5, 1980, the University For Peace offers master's programs in
International Relations and Cooperation, and in Ecology and Peace, as well as a variety of
programs in democratic sustainment.
The three hour seminar at the University
For Peace focused on presentations given by the university's rector, Dr. Francisco
Barahona, and two other university academic coordinators. The presentations were followed
by a lively discussion on democratic sustainment not only in Central America, but in Latin
America as a whole. The CGSOC students left the institution with a far better
understanding of the efforts being committed to building consensus and negotiation in the
region.
Maj. Roger Barros, CGSOC Course Director,
said "in an era where military officers must be just as knowledgeable about peace
operations involving humanitarian assistance, demining and similar operations as they are
in warfighting, visits to institutions such as the University For Peace and The
InterAmerican Institute For Human Rights are very germane.
"The fundamental concept is to
impart to the CGSOC students, which consist of U.S. and Latin American officers from 12
different countries, the varying roles of the military operating under the control of a
civilian democratic nation-state."
Both Barros and Dr. Russell Ramsey,
USARSA's resident Latin American Affairs Specialist, are currently working on a project to
incorporate a guest instructor program involving members from both of the institutions to
not only participate in the Human Rights and Peacekeeping blocks of instruction of the
CGSOC, but in USARSA's 6-week long Democratic Sustainment course and 5-week long Peace
Operations Course.
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