Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence

The Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence (AFG-PAK COE) is an internal think tank at the United States Central Command focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Central Asian States. The AFG-PAK COE seeks to build expertise in and provide improved intelligence for the missions in those countries and the states around them.[1][2] The AFG-PAK COE is planning to help expand the number of U.S. military and civilian experts on Afghanistan and Pakistan by providing them with education and training opportunities covering the culture, language, and region, and keeping these analysts and military forces connected to these missions in those countries when they are between deployments.[1][2]

Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence
Official Seal of the COE
Agency overview
FormedAugust 2009
HeadquartersTampa, Florida United States
Agency executive
Websitewww2.centcom.mil/afgpak

The COE is within the USCENTCOM Directorate of Intelligence.[3]

In the news

After just over a year as an organization, the AFG-PAK COE won the Defense Intelligence Agency's Director's Annual Agency Team Award for its success in leading and focusing analysis efforts to support operations in Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan.[4] The center has hosted a number of conferences, including a June 2010 conference called "The Art of the Possible in Afghanistan and Pakistan." The AF-PAK Center briefly changed its name to AF-PAK Central Asian States Center to include the Central Asian States. The center is currently being assimilated/reorganized into the USCENTCOM J2[5][6]

In April 2013, the Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper, praised the AF-PAK Center for its detailed analytic work on the Osama bin Laden raid files.[7]

References
  1. General David Petraeus speech, courtesy video by Central Command Air Forces News Team, "The Lt. Cmdr. Otis Vincent Tolbert Building," 26 August 2009
  2. Derek Harvey interview, video courtesy of U.S. Central Command Public Affairs, "Derek Harvey," 25 August 2009
  3. Arab News, http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=125765&d=25&m=8&y=2009 Archived 2011-12-13 at the Wayback Machine, August 25, 2009
  4. CENTCOM Public Affairs, Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence receives Director's Annual Agency Team Award Archived December 8, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, December 2, 2010
  5. Simon Shercliff, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Global Conversations, The Art of the Possible - Towards Afghanistan's Political Settlement, 10 June 2010
  6. U.S. Central Command, CENTCOM hosting AFG-PAK conference in June Archived May 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, May 17, 2010
  7. Thomas Joscelyn, The Weekly Standard, Exploiting Osama Bin Laden’s Files, 12 April 2013
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