A shared vision for defense board and OAS.

• Author: Conaway, Janelle
• Position: Organization of American States

The OAS has another regional entity under its umbrella: the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB). The OAS General Assembly adopted the statutes defining the IADB's role and structure during a special session held at OAS headquarters on March 15, in the Hall of the Americas.

Under the new institutional framework, the IADB will provide technical and educational advice and consultancy services to the OAS and its member states on military and defense matters. Its operations and structure will be in keeping with the OAS Charter and the Inter-American Democratic Charter, including "the principles of civilian oversight; and the subordination of military institutions to civilian authority."

"Today is a historic moment for the OAS and the inter-American system," said Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, noting that the statutes adopted by the General Assembly put to rest any ambiguities and make it clear that the IADB responds to the civilian democratic authority represented by the OAS political bodies.

Ambassador Esteban Tomic of Chile, who chaired the special session, recalled that the IADB had been formally established in the same historic hall sixty-four years earlier, just three months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Tomic explained that the twenty-one countries of the Pan American Union--the predecessor to the OAS-created the agency to examine collective defense issues at a time when the largest country had been drawn into war and sought regional support.

Following World War II, the Gold War created tensions and divisions that often sent the IADB and the OAS on divergent paths, Tomic said. But, he added, the end of the Gold War and the strengthening of democracy in the hemisphere opened the door to the possibility of forging agreement on a shared vision.

In 2002, the...