ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Billions are spent on US security cooperation every year. Mick Crnkovich, one of the most candid practitioners in the field, joins us to make the case for treating assessment, monitoring, and evaluation (AM&E) not as compliance overhead, but as the decision infrastructure that protects taxpayer investment and keeps security cooperation honest.
Key Takeaways:
00:00 Introduction.
01:16 AM&E was built to be a decision infrastructure, not paperwork.
09:06 AM&E expertise does not exist inside the Department of Defense.
12:17 A single vendor created consistency. Fragmentation broke it.
16:55 DoD culture is the biggest obstacle to lasting AM&E progress.
20:31 Effective AM&E integrates data, people, and culture as one system.
25:18 Choosing the cheapest vendor produces garbage in, garbage out.
28:33 Big primes are a mile wide and an inch deep. AM&E needs specialists.
39:18 Rigorous AM&E aligns directly with this administration's efficiency priorities.
48:25 No one inside the combatant commands was held accountable for AM&E outcomes.
50:16 AI and ML must be integrated into SSCI proposals. The talent exists.
53:21 AM&E professionals speak a language most DoD stakeholders do not understand.
55:00 The best teams combine AM&E expertise with former security cooperation officers.
01:09:48 The enterprise is at a restart point. Not from scratch, but a deliberate reset.
Resources Mentioned:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mick-crnkovich/
https://www.q2impact.com
Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA)
https://www.dsca.mil/
Defense Security Cooperation University (DSCU)
https://dscu.edu/
U.S. Code § 383 — NDAA 2017 AM&E of Programs and Activieties
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/383
SCIP — Security Cooperation Information Portal
https://scip.dsca.mil/welcome/
The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/588768/the-good-american-by-robert-d-kaplan/
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