IV. Return to competition By 2020 the Joint all-domain concept was converging on the need for the allies and partners to convince the adversary that it is in everyone's interest to return to competition, well short of conflict between near-peer adversaries. In 2021 the 40th Chief of Staff of the Army described the Army's role in the Continuum of military competition, a Joint concept. Alliances and partnerships An ongoing series of programs to strengthen relationships between the Army and its allies and partners is being implemented. These programs include demonstrations of cooperation, interoperability, and preparedness of its partners. For example, in 2019 the Army uses DoD's State Partnership Program, to link 22 National Guard Bilateral Affairs Officers (BAOs) with 22 allies or partners in the 54 countries in European Command's area to facilitate common defense interests with the US. In all, 89 partnerships now exist. See: Foreign Area Officer (FAO) DoD's Joint AI Center (JAIC) has convened 100 online participants from 13 countries to discuss how to use AI in a way that is consonant with their national ethical principles, termed the 'AI Partnership for Defense' in 2020. For example, the US has a policy of human permission needed in order to trigger the automatic kill chains. In 2021 the 28th Secretary of defense committed to the department's ethical use of AI capabilities in a "responsible, equitable, traceable, reliable, and governable" way. In 2019 the 27th Secretary of Defense Mark Esper identified the Indo-Pacific Theater as the priority theater for the United States. A multi-domain task force for the Indo-Pacific Theater is planned for a Defender exercise. However, in light of the DoD 60-day travel ban due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of CONUS-based troops participating in Defender Europe 2020 was reduced to those troops already in Europe. In 2020 the Army lost 3 NTC training rotations to COVID-19. JWA 20 was intended to exercise Multi-domain operations, and multinational forces, in EUCOM for 2020. See: Vostok 2018. EUCOM's Multi-domain task force is to be smaller than the Pacific's task force. It is expected that the task forces are to be employed in the Defender exercises in both EUCOM and the Pacific. Defender Europe 2020 was to test the ability to deploy 20,000 Soldiers across Europe, for a 37,000-member exercise. Elements of the 1st Cavalry, 82nd Airborne, 1st Armored, 1st Infantry, and 3rd Infantry Divisions, 11 National Guard states and