William J Perry Center Professors Colonel (ret) Alejandro Alemán and Dr. Alejandra Bolaños participated in the first event announcing the publication of the book Effective, Legitimate, Secure: Insights for Defense Institution Building on Thursday, October 26th.

As invited author for this publication, Prof. Alemán was part of a select panel on Defense Institution Building (DIB). During his presentation he shared highlights of his chapter “Transforming Defense in Guatemala,” detailing his first-hand experience in a multi-year effort to improve the Guatemalan defense sector’s efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability under a holistic governance framework. Under the auspices of the Defense Governance and Management Team (DGMT), his involvement in the Guatemala DIB project enabled Prof. Alemán to begin distilling generalizable DIB principles and evaluating the adequacy of practices. Among the lessons underscored he discussed the importance of: partner nation ownership, political will, change agents, as well as donor coordination and program integration.

Prof. Alemán joined two other panelists: Tommy Ross, Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Security Cooperation, and Dr. Querine Hanlon, President of Strategic Capacity Group, both of whom also contributed key chapters to this volume. Joining Prof. Alemán and as part of a dedicated community seeking to enhance the strategic and sustainable impact of US security assistance efforts, Dr. Bolaños was recognized during the panel for directly collaborating with Dr. Hanlon and Robert Perito in the substantive development of their chapter as well as for her contributions during the conceptualization of the entire volume.