Assistant Director
Defense Security Cooperation Agency
Director
Defense Security Cooperation Service
Mr. Saul Bracero joined DSCA in September 2011 and has held multiple positions within the Agency. Currently, he serves as the Assistant Director for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency within the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). He previously served as DSCU’s Deputy Assistant Director for Strategic Workforce Programs overseeing a Congressionally mandated Security Cooperation Workforce Development Programs (SCWDP) and the SCO Management Reform Initiative. He also served as the acting Provost, Deputy Assistant Director for Enterprise Support, and Team Lead for the Security Cooperation Organization (SCO) Management team. The DSCS Initiative aims to enhance DSCA funded management functions of SCOs operating in 159 U.S. Embassies. Before this assignment, Saul was the Institutional Capacity Building Division Chief, where he transformed how the Department delivers nonmaterial security cooperation assistance to global security partners through the implementation of strategic international advising, education and training programs, defense institution building, and the DoD Regional Center enterprise. While serving as the Africa Center for Strategic Studies Chief of Staff, he oversaw operational program management functions of an academic institution supporting National level strategic priorities for Africa.
He brings over 30 years of leadership; policy development; security cooperation; intelligence analysis; and humanitarian, peacekeeping, and operational experience. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2013 after 26 years of active duty having served as a Sub-Saharan Africa Foreign Area and as a Military Police Officer. His service included assignments culminating at the national policy level as well as operational assignments in Germany, Cameroon, Iraq, Panama, and Cuba. In Iraq he served as the Iraqi Police Transition Team Chief to assist the National Police improve community policing, rule of law, and law enforcement operations through Security Cooperation programs. At the national strategic level, he served as the Director of East and Central Africa in the Office of the Secretary of Defense working peacekeeping, intelligence sharing and fusion, security cooperation, and counterterrorism. While assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency, Mr. Bracero oversaw all Defense strategic intelligence analysis production for Africa directly supporting national level intelligence consumers. While assigned to the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart Germany, Mr. Bracero served as the security cooperation program manager for West and Central Africa overseeing sensitive security cooperation projects to improve the capacity of several African countries ability to respond and react to crisis. Earlier in his military career, Mr. Bracero held several key Military Police positions with assignment and operational deployments to Germany, Panama, South Korea, and Cuba.
Mr. Bracero holds a Master of Science degree in National Strategic Studies from the National War College; a Master of Arts degree in International Relations and a Certificate of African Studies from the University of Florida; and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations from Brigham Young University; He is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and Military Police Officer Basic and Advance Courses.