10 U.S.C. § 345 — Irregular Warfare Center and Regional Defense Fellowship Program

(a) Authorities — The Secretary of Defense may operate a Center for Strategic Studies in Irregular Warfare, called the "Irregular Warfare Center," following the requirements in (c). The Secretary may also run the "Regional Defense Fellowship Program," educating and training foreign personnel at military or civilian schools, the Irregular Warfare Center, regional centers, conferences, seminars, or other training programs about regional defense, irregular warfare, or combating terrorism. The Secretary may pay: travel, living, and similar expenses, plus special pay, for foreign defense personnel attending the Center or Program; for other foreign government and non-government personnel too, with the Secretary of State's agreement; and for foreign and U.S. government personnel needed to run these authorities. The Secretary may also pay costs of running the Irregular Warfare Center — research, communication, sharing ideas, building and reviewing curriculum, and training U.S. and foreign participants, plus keeping up an international network of irregular-warfare experts — and costs of staying engaged with the Program's alumni to support Defense Department goals on irregular warfare and counterterrorism. (b) Regulations for the Fellowship Program — The Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State must jointly write regulations governing the Program. These regulations must ensure the two Secretaries jointly plan Program activities that advance U.S. security cooperation goals and support combatant commands' security planning, and coordinate on carrying them out; that each Secretary names a coordination official at the lowest fitting level; and that Program activities line up with — and do not duplicate or clash with — International Military Education and Training (IMET) activities, as much as practical. Whenever the regulations are updated, the Secretary of Defense must send Congress's Armed Services Committees a copy of the update and a description of what changed. (c) Irregular Warfare Center — Its mission is to be the central place for building the Defense Department's knowledge of irregular warfare, working with key partners and allies, by: coordinating the Department's irregular-warfare education plans and standards; supporting research on irregular warfare, strategic competition, and the Department's role in interagency work; working with other federal agencies, academia, nonprofits, civil society, and international partners on irregular-warfare security challenges; building curriculum and running training for U.S. and foreign participants; and serving as the central hub for irregular-warfare resources and lessons learned across the Department. The Secretary may, if funds are available, hire a Director, Deputy Director, and civilian professors, instructors, and lecturers for the Center, at pay levels the Secretary sets. To promote integration across government and civil society, the Secretary may partner with a college or university (as defined in the Higher Education Act of 1965), either through an intergovernmental support agreement or through a contract, cooperative agreement, or grant via the Defense Security Cooperation University. The Secretary must decide whether a government-owned, contractor-run partnership — like the kind used for University Affiliated Research Centers — would best serve the Center's mission. The Secretary must set guidance for the roles of Department components running the Center, including: the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, for policy oversight; that Assistant Secretary, as Executive Agent supporting the Center's operation; and any other official the Secretary names. (d) Limitation — No more than $35,000,000 a year may be spent under the Fellowship Program authority in (a)(1)(B). Money available for a fiscal year may still fund programs that start that year but finish in the next one. (e) Annual Report — By December 1 each year, the Secretary must send Congress a report on how this section was run that year, including: a full accounting of spending under (a), listing the countries of participating foreign officers and the total cost paid per country; which training courses foreign officers and officials attended, noting which were held overseas; an assessment of how well the Fellowship Program, including alumni engagement, is building foreign government cooperation with the United States; steps being taken to improve the Program, including any unfunded or unmet training needs; how the Program fits each geographic combatant command's security priorities; and how the past year's training used lessons learned from ongoing conflicts. (f) Annual Review — By December 1, 2024, and every year after, the Secretary must review whether the Irregular Warfare Center's structure and activities properly match the Department's and combatant commands' strategic priorities, and may revise the Center's structure and activities based on that review.