A college armed for democracy.

• Author: Newell, Paul
• Position: INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM - Glauco Castilho of Inter-American Defense College

As Brazilian Navy captain Glauco Castilho sat amid the cool marble splendor of the OAS Hall of the Americas in Washington, he attempted to grasp the significance of where he was sitting and what was transpiring around him.

In a matter of minutes, Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, Major General Keith M. Huber, and other invited dignitaries would hand out diplomas, marking the commencement of the the Inter-American Defense College's forty-fourth class.

"I believe that the common understanding and security as well as the personal relationships that your program fosters are essential to bringing confidence and mutual trust among the armed forces in our region," Insulza said. "You are helping to build a democratic culture of security, in which the armed forces of the Americas can defend their nations while also acting to strengthen democratic institutions that we hold so dear."

After spending nearly a year studying and gaining hemispheric perspectives, Castilho was inspired by Insulza's words, appreciating the compliment but also understanding that the challenges facing him and his classmates had only begun.

"It was an emotional day for me," says Castilho, a forty-eight-year-old Sao Paolo native now serving as an IADC advisor. "My class had students from fifteen countries, from different backgrounds and points-of-view. But we grew into a tight-knit bunch with much respect for one another. As I listened to Secretary General Insulza speak I was excited because I felt as if the college had equipped us. We spent a year preparing to succeed in our hemisphere. The rest is up to us."

Moments like Castilho's have been at the cornerstone of the IADC's mission since the school's beginnings. Operating under OAS guidance, the IADC, an advanced studies institute for senior officers and civilians of member nations, can trace its origins to the midst of the Cold War.

In 1957, the idea of opening a defense college for the Americas was born at the Inter-American Defense Board. Two years later, former U.S. Marine commandant and newly chosen IADB chairman, General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., and the IADB council of delegates submitted Resolution XLI to various hemispheric governments, hoping to "promote the standardization of coordinated instruction of the armed forces of the American countries at a high level."

Later that year the concept was approved, and after six possible locations were investigated, the board ultimately chose Ft. Lesley J. McNair, a...