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CHARLOTTE-DOUGLAS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BASE, N.C. -- Judge Advocates from the North Carolina Air National Guard (NCANG) host the North Carolina National Guard’s (NCNG) state partner legal advisors from Malawi, Zambia and Botswana to participate in a Mini African Military Law Forum (AMLF) at the N.C. Air National Guard (ANG) Base, Charlotte, N.C., July 29 - Aug. 2.
The Judge Advocate Council is the national-level body that develops strategic policy, operational and professional training, and force development for the 550 judge advocates and paralegals in the Air National Guard. The council meets quarterly at different Air National Guard locations across the country. For this quarter, the council meeting took place in Charlotte and was hosted by the NCANG's judge advocates.
“The council meets regularly each quarter to conduct council business,” said Col. Cynthia Bernett, Joint Force Headquarters-N.C., Air National Guard, assistant to the commandant at the Judge Advocate General’s school.
“For this meeting, we did something that we’ve never done before and invited our African State Partnership Program (SPP) partners. With them being present, they can understand the big picture legal issues facing the Air National Guard. Through each partner’s briefing, we are then
able to understand the big picture legal issues facing each of their respective countries.”
After attending the seventh AFML in Lusaka, Zambia, last year, and meeting the legal advisors from North Carolina’s State Partnership Program, Maj. Gen. Walker asked if we could invite legal advisors from the African nations partnered with NCNG in the SPP to join this quarter's council meeting in Charlotte at the NCANG base.
“The inspiration for this legal engagement was born while attending the 2024 AFML in Lusaka, Zambia, last year with Mr. Charlie Young, former General Counsel to the National Guard Bureau,” said U.S. Maj. Gen. Charles “Chuck” Walker, The Air National Guard assistant to the judge advocate general. “We were so impressed with how legal advisors from more than 30 African nations collaborated to address changes faced by military lawyers, which convinced us not to wait for the next AMLF to have a touchpoint, we wanted to keep the momentum alive.”
Established in March 2014, the AMLF is typically held annually at various locations globally. The goal of the AMLF is to gather military legal advisors from African nations to discuss legal topics and exchange ideas on how to improve military operations' adherence to the rule of law.
“This experience has been instrumental in deepening our understanding of the U.S. legal system and our existing partnership,” said Brig. Gen. Gilbert Mittawa, chief of legal services, Malawi Defense Force. “It has opened doors for more ideas and areas of collaboration.”
Mittawa and legal advisors from partnering countries and ANG judge advocates received an emergency response brief highlighting how the National Guard works with civil authorities during natural disasters such as Hurricane Helene at the Joint Force Headquarters in Raleigh.
Being in North Carolina afforded a unique opportunity to visit the Center for Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University Law School, to receive a brief on lawfare, which is a method of warfare where law is used as a means of realizing a military objective, by U.S. retired Maj. Gen. Charlie Dunlap, Jr., the center’s executive director.
Additionally, the legal advisors met with sitting North Carolina Supreme Court Justices and Appellate Court Judges while visiting the North Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, to discuss and compare our legal systems, further promoting ease of collaboration between NCNG and its partner nations.
Maj. Keorapetse Sereetsi, command judge advocate, Botswana Ground Forces Command, expressed how the conference emphasized collaboration between the U.S., Malawi, Zambia and Botswana. He elaborated on how each nation needs the other, and the challenges faced in Botswana are like those faced by the other partner nations, including the U.S.
Sereetsi’s Zambian counterpart, Col. Namwawa, echoed the same sentiments and more.
"The discussions on emergency response at Joint Force Headquarters-N.C. made me think about how we can develop the capacity to respond to disasters and collaborate more effectively with civilian agencies," said Col. Mwizookanji Namwawa, the legal services branch director general of the Zambia Army. "The discussions highlighted innovative approaches that can be adapted to Zambia's context."
The SPP sets out to build relationships between partner nations while simultaneously improving readiness and interoperability for all countries involved. While the JAC’s quarterly meetings are designed to produce the same type of interoperability with the judge advocates and paralegals serving in the 54 states, territories, and the District of Columbia. Inviting NCANG’s SSP partners compounded the effort of both programs in one setting.
“The North Carolina Guard’s SPP ties with Botswana, Malawi and Zambia were built over the years by people like Rick Fay, former State SJA (Staff Judge Advocate) and State General Counsel, made this not a one-off visit, but the next step in a long-term professional relationship that supports both our partners’ priorities and U.S. national security,” said Walker. “My vision is that this was the first step in institutionalizing unique and enduring SPP engagements within the National Guard legal community and building an international component into the Judge Advocate Council and ultimately, taking AFRICOM’s (African Command) model with AMLF and expanding opportunities across other combatant commands to make the same types of connections among legal advisors that we enjoy with our African partners, the standard around the world.”
| Date Taken: | 08.01.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.26.2025 10:00 |
| Story ID: | 546189 |
| Location: | CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 16 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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