One of Barbados’ top security officials has been awarded the 2022 William J. Perry Award for Excellence in Security and Defence Education.
Executive Director of the Regional Security System (RSS) and Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force (BDF), Commodore Errington Shurland, received the prestigious award from the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies in Washington DC, last week.
Commodore Shurland was bestowed this honour in recognition of his significant contributions in the field of security and defence, but attributes the achievement to the result of teamwork by the staff of the RSS, the BDF and the military and police forces within the RSS Member States.
He lauded the governments of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union for their contribution to the development of citizen security and resilience in RSS Member States, and also expressed gratitude to the Perry Center for the ongoing assistance to Barbados in the development of the National Security Policy.
During his remarks, the RSS head underscored that there has been a paradigm shift in security challenges and criminal activities, and issued an urgent call for multilateralism .
“The contemporary security environment has become more complex, characterised by a melting pot of modalities of security threats such as transnational organised crime, terrorism, piracy, armed robbery at sea, environmental degradation, pandemic diseases, cyber attacks and climate change, inter alia.
“Within this hemisphere the region is considered a zone of peace. Indeed there has not been a state-on-state conflict in the Western Hemisphere since the Cenepa war… Our zone of peace, our citizen security, our continued development, is challenged by transnational organised crime. [This] poses a clear, direct and escalating threat to public health and national security and development within the region,” Commodore Shurland stressed.
Professor of Practice at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defence Studies, Dr. William Godnick, commended Commodore Shurland for his outstanding contributions in the security arena, and for sharing his knowledge with younger officers, ensuring that they were equipped to successfully complete the tasks with which they were faced.
“Commodore Shurland embodies the history and legacy of the Chiefs of Defence of the Barbados Defence Force, but I would also say in addition to his own academic accomplishments, his professional benchmarks that he has achieved, he leaves in his wake, young officers that are ready to take the mantle. In addition to our own accomplishments we have to judge people by what they leave as their legacy, and as a sailor who they leave in their wake,” he affirmed.
Other recipients of the 2022 William J. Perry Award for Excellence in Security and Defence Education were former Minister of Defence of Ecuador, General (Rtd.) Raúl Oswaldo Jarrín Román and the Colegio de Defensa Nácional de Honduras. (RSS) rsshq@rss.org.bb
