text: Security Force Assistance
  force levels once developed. SFA planners and practitioners should also consider the potential for the partner
  nation to abuse developed capabilities or use them counter to their original purpose. Finally, they should
  consider if this enhanced capability and capacity in the partner force has the potential to create more problems
  than they were meant to solve.
  CAPACITY CONSIDERATIONS
  2-14. The partner nation may possess a base level of capability but lack the requisite level of capacity to
  sustain that effort over a longer period. Capability is an interim step toward capacity and building sustainable
  capacity among allies and partners at the operational level requires enduring strategies that draw from equally
  developed institutional support systems within the generating and executive functions. SFA capacity building
  activities will have the greatest return on investment when U.S. and partner FSF objectives and security
  interests are in alignment, and the partner nation can sustain the increase in capacity.
  2-15. SFA planners and practitioners should be aware of the various authorities, agencies, and programs that
  are available for building partner capacity. DSCA is the lead agency for building partner capacity, and the
  focal point within DOD for the planning, execution, management, and oversight of building partner capacity
  programs which include—
  * Foreign Security Forces: Authority to Build Capacity. An authority under 10 USC, Sec 333, that
  provides training and equipment to partner nation security forces for the purpose of building
  capacity (10 USC authorities are discussed in more detail in Chapter 4).
  * Friendly Foreign Countries; International and Regional Organizations: Defense Institution
  Capacity Building. An authority under 10 USC, Sec 332, that assists allies and partners in
  examining and addressing broader, systemic factors essential to delivering what is needed (for
  example, money, things, people, ideas, decisions) to build capacity.
  Note. At the strategic level, combatant commands and the theater armies should prioritize the
  planning of partner nation institutional capacity programs that link U.S. engagement efforts with
  national security objectives if building enduring partner capacity is the goal. A strategy to achieve
  sustainable partner capacity may never actualize if the approach is too narrow or tactical in scope.
  For example, short-term tactical equipping and training programs that ignore institutional support
  mechanisms to support enduring capacity are likely to fail.
  * International military education and training. Military education and training programs funded
  through both DOS and DOD and provide skill-focused training as well as PME. DOS’s IMET
  focuses on PME for foreign military officers and other select personnel. DOD-funded
  engagements include opportunities through the Regional Centers for Security Studies, Regional
  Defense Fellowship Program, Defense Institute for International Legal Studies, Institute for
  Security Governance, Section 333 •Foreign Security Forces: Authority to Build Capacity, and a
  variety of other opportunities and exchange programs.
  Note. For SFA planners and practitioners, the presence and nature of a partner nation’s PME
  system is a key component to and an indicator of long-term institutional capacity potential. PME,
  quite simply, enables the professionalization and modernization of a military force, and is a key
  driver of sustained security and stability within a region. PME establishes a common lexicon of
  references, doctrines, and approaches to problem solving, as well as a transformative and
  progressive process to develop these principles and institutionalize capacity across the executive,
  generating, and operating functions. This is especially true within the generating function where
  identifying, resourcing, and resolving partner nation capability gaps across DOTMLPF-P are
  instrumental to improving how a partner force is organized, trained, equipped, led, and resourced.
  * Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. A set of programs that build the capacity of partner
  nation civilian and military institutions to provide essential services to civilian population.