WASHINGTON—The U.S. Institute of Peace began a training program for uniformed and civilian officials of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense (MOD) today in Washington, D.C. This program encompasses the third week of the Iraqi Defense Planners Workshop and follows on two weeks of professional skills training just completed by the Iraqi officials at the National Defense University's Near East/South Asia Center for Security Studies. Institute trainers, led by Professional Training Program director George Ward and program officers Michael Lekson and Ray Caldwell, will spend three days in the classroom focusing on problem analysis and negotiation. This will be followed by three days of simulated problem solving known as "SENSE" (Strategic Economic Needs and Security Simulation Exercise), which was developed by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and the U.S. Institute of Peace. The Institute training will serve as the basis for subsequent Institute training sessions to be conducted first in the United States and then in Iraq for Iraqi national security officials on an interagency basis (including members of the Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Interior, etc.).

The purpose of the Institute program is to help Iraqi officials build their skills in order to support the policies of their new democratic leadership after decades of dictatorship that gravely damaged the human infrastructure needed for effective governance. The training will make the participants better able to work together within in their ministry and with other ministries in the new government of Iraq. The success of the political leadership of the new government will depend on having top quality, non-political civil servants who can carry out professional responsibilities. After three days of classroom and interactive training, the SENSE simulation will provide a detailed post-conflict scenario, in which the participants will have an intensive opportunity to apply the skills they have learned and developed, with computer support providing real-time feedback on the consequences of the decisions they make.