Ted Feifer of the Professional Training Program led USIP's first workshop for the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at European Command in Darmstadt, Germany, July 12-14, 2004. DTRA is deployed worldwide to play a key role in U.S. efforts to in address the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
Ted Feifer of the Professional Training Program led USIP's first workshop for the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at European Command in Darmstadt, Germany, July 12-14, 2004. DTRA is deployed worldwide to play a key role in U.S. efforts to in address the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The DTRA European Command deploys assessment teams to Iraq, and provides operations support for monitoring and verifying the CFE Treaty, INF Treaty, OSCE Vienna Document, and arms control elements of the Dayton Peace Accords.
There were 17 participants in the workshop from DTRA, the U.S. Army Europe Command, and the U.S. European Command. Ten were civilians and 7 active duty military. Most had participated in monitoring assignments in countries ranging from Eastern Europe to Cambodia.
Workshop objectives were to strengthen participants' communication and negotiation skills in foreign cultural environments. The program included interactive presentations and discussions, as well as exercises with civilian, military and mixed scenarios. The first day's program included an exercise in negotiation styles, a presentation on effective communication, and a presentation on culture and conflict, followed by a related exercise. The second day's program led off with a presentation on negotiations, a two-person negotiation exercise; an interactive presentation on dealing with difficult people; and an exercise based on a DTRA-style monitoring problem. The final activity on the third day was a complex multi-party simulation with a political-military scenario.
Describing the workshop, one participant appreciated that it "provided an opportunity to step back and observe how different personalities react in different situations." Another confirmed that the workshop focus was "useful for my current position working with foreign military."
