Marshall
Center, Garmisch-Partenkirchen
(Source: George C. Marshall
Center web site)
The need for an institution such as the Marshall Center
was identified in the wake of the failed August 1991 coup attempt
in Russia. The U.S. European Command's Plans and Policy Directorate
began to develop proposals to expand defense and security contacts
with the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe and
Eurasia. The intention was to positively influence the development
of security structures appropriate for democratic states. In October
1991, a proposal was developed to use the facilities of the U.S.
Army Russian Institute to create a European Center for Security
Studies where they could rapidly develop opportunities to work with
Central/Eastern European and Eurasian defense establishments. The
proposal was submitted to Gen. Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, in February, 1992. He endorsed the plan on March
17, 1992. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Paul Wolfowitz,
approved the EUCOM proposal that summer, and the staffs began to
develop a charter for the proposed center. Secretary of Defense
Dick Cheney signed DOD Directive 5200.34 in November 1992, establishing
the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies as an
element of the U.S. European Command under the authority, direction,
and control of the Commander in Chief, EUCOM. The Marshall Center
became a German-American partnership initiative when a Memorandum
of Agreement was signed on December 2, 1994, between Headquarters
EUCOM and the German Ministry of Defense. The George C. Marshall
European Center for Security Studies was dedicated on June 5, 1993.
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