The dynamic and challenging nature of the current security environment makes cooperation within the international community more important than ever. We face a wide variety of threats to peace: from weapons of mass destruction, to terrorism, to natural disasters. Humanitarian assistance and foreign military training are valuable means of building constructive, long-term relationships across the globe: partnerships that encourage stability in regions faced with unique challenges. Offering nations the tools for self-sufficiency, self-protection, security, prosperity, and self-government are shared responsibilities.

Cooperating closely with allies, other NATO and United Nations member states, non-governmental organizations and local governments, our humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and civil affairs support go the extra mile to stem human suffering. We combine forces with many agencies and nations to respond to famines, floods, and other natural disasters, calling on America's unique global lift and logistical capabilities to support those who need it most. For example, in Mozambique, U.S. pilots for Joint Task Force Atlas Response flew over 600 sorties and delivered nearly a thousand tons of cargo to flood victims while Army engineers assisted local governments with dam projects, Marines provided communications, and Naval personnel provided medical support. Today, more than a thousand patients a month receive medical care by Coalition Special Forces troops in Afghanistan, often in remote rural villages without doctors.

We engage in a variety of ways to help struggling nations eliminate terrorist safe havens in lawless areas, thwart proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and promote economic stability. The U.S. military integrates with partners through foreign military training, professional military education exchanges, and military exercises. The ultimate goal is to allow emerging nations to improve security within their borders, humanely govern their people, administer the rule of law, provide food and shelter to the indigent, and cooperate productively with their neighbors.

• Under Plan Colombia we have assisted the Colombian government with training their troops for counternarcotics operations and helping to provide security for their citizens.

• We provided aid to Georgia to fund training and equipment essential for stability operations. Now Georgia is preparing to send forces that the U.S. trained and equipped to Iraq to provide the United Nations mission with security.

• In Afghanistan, the Coalition and NATO are helping a fledgling democracy take root for the first time after hugely successful elections, and create a professional Afghan military that cuts across ethnic and tribal lines.

• Servicemen and women, from young enlisted soldiers to general officers, come from across the world to America for professional military education, including war colleges, peacekeeping training, and flight school. We also send our officers to many countries in exchange, to broaden our military education programs and encourage familiarity with diverse cultures.

• We also hold dozens of combined exercises around the globe every year with a wide variety of partners, such as: Cobra Gold, with Thai and Singaporean forces; Exercise Lariat Response, with NATO forces; and Exercise Cornerstone, an engineering exercise with the Moldova armed forces, during which they constructed a functioning medical facility to provide health care to over 600 children.

• We are also working and training with the Philippine army and marines to help an ally in the war on terrorism to fight violent extremists.

• Likewise, in Iraq, the Coalition has trained over a hundred thousand security personnel and revitalized much of their electricity, water, sewage, and medical infrastructures — after decades of extreme neglect.

Across the globe today, we see the fruits of cooperation expanding economic and political stability and, at the end of the day, quality of life for millions of people. This issue of e-Journal USA examines U.S. humanitarian assistance, military foreign training, and other programs that are critical to building meaningful and enduring friendships. By fostering these interagency and international programs, we can help create stability and set the conditions necessary for democracies around the globe to flourish.