The Inter-American Defense Board (IDB) was created in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the Third Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the 21 American Republics that at that time made up the Pan American Union, through Resolution No. XXXIX of 28 January 1942.
As a first step towards the execution of Resolution XXXIX, the Directing Council of the Pan American Union entrusted a Special Committee made up of the Ambassadors of Brazil, Venezuela and Panama in the United States with the task of specifying the specialty of the officers who would integrate it and the place where the Board would be installed.
The Special Committee proposed, for the integration of the IADB, a Commission composed of Military, Naval and Air Force technicians, appointed by the member governments of the Pan American Union, to study and suggest the defense of the continent, by virtue of the threat that They represented the Axis Powers in World War II.
Meanwhile, the Director of the Directing Council of the Pan American Union determined that the inaugural session of the IADB would take place on March 30, 1942, in the Hall of the Americas of the Pan American Union in Washington DC, United States (currently Building Principal of the OAS), place where its provisional residence was established and date on which the Inter-American Defense Board was formally established.
A few months after the inaugural session, the Board moved into the Federal Reserve Building, where it carried out its functions until September 1944. On the latter date, it moved its permanent offices to the New War Department Building, where it remained until 1949.
In August 1949, the IADB moved to the so-called “Pink Palace”, located on the corner of 16th Street and Euclid Street in the city of Washington, DC, where it held its first meeting on October 11, 1949.
The Board reformed its regulations on June 12, 1951 and established a structure with a Presidency, a Vice President, a Council of Delegates, as the governing body; a General Staff, as a technical work body, and a Secretariat, as an administrative body.
Given the need to expand the doctrine and knowledge on the security and defense of the Hemisphere, in 1962 the Council of Delegates of the Board approved the creation of the Inter-American Defense College, which was incorporated as an Organ of the IADB on July 9, 1964, with its facilities at Fort Lesley McNair, Washington DC, United States.
Based on Resolution CP/RES. 417 (590/84), of November 1, 1984, the Permanent Council of the OAS carried out the remodeling of the facilities of the “Pink Palace”, which was completed in 1986. Based on the above, the Building acquired the name from “House of the Soldier”.
During the XXXII Extraordinary Period of Sessions, the OAS General Assembly approved the Statute of the Inter-American Defense Board through Resolution AG/RES.1 (XXXII-E/06), on March 15, 2006; moment when the IADB was established as an OAS Entity and modified its organic structure into three Organs, the Council of Delegates, the Secretariat and the Inter-American Defense College.
The Council of Delegates is the highest representative body of the IADB, which develops and adopts policies and activities, in accordance with the guidelines established by the General Assembly of the OAS, and also supervises the application of these policies, activities and guidelines through the Secretariat and of the Inter-American Defense College.
The General Secretariat, among other functions, implements resolutions, guidelines and other decisions of the Council; provides secretariat services to the Council, committees, subcommittees, working groups and other subsidiary bodies; fulfills directives and other tasks; provides technical advice; custody of IADB documents and files; prepares reports and develops cooperative relationships with global and regional international organizations.
The CID is committed to guaranteeing its students a rigorous higher education that contributes to the future of defense and multidimensional security in the Americas, promoting quality education for senior officials, through a multinational and permanent team of Professors, in the four languages of the Hemisphere.
Constantly evolving, the Board has the capacity to support the four pillars of the OAS: Democracy, Human Rights, Security and Development, with a primary focus on the Security pillar.
