On 6th and 7th November, participants attending the eighth NATO Regional Cooperation Course (NRCC 8) at the NATO Defense College (NDC) visited NATO Headquarters (NATO HQ) in Brussels.
The schedule for the two days was extremely intense, providing Course Members with a unique opportunity to engage in rewarding discussions with top NATO officials and diplomats on current strategic and security issues.
H.E. Ambassador Dirk Brengelmann, Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, welcomed the group on arrival. His much appreciated briefing focussed on NATO’s current political agenda and paved the way for the following lectures, which outlined the implications of the new Security Concept for the Alliance’s engagement in particular theatres such as Libya and Afghanistan, as well as more generally in the Mediterranean area and the Middle East. Specific attention was also given to NATO’s new partnership policy, which was discussed at length.
Speakers were either national Ambassadors to the North Atlantic Council or senior NATO experts and advisors. Course Members thus received briefings of extremely high quality: among the lecturers on the second day of the visit were General Knud Bartels, Chairman of the North Atlantic Military Committee, and H.E. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, NATO Deputy Secretary General. Together, they engaged Course Members in an exceptionally informative Q&A session on the Alliance’s new partnership policy and on its current security challenges. Subsequent speakers then addressed the topics of NATO’s military cooperation in the framework of the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, the NATO reform and command structure, and NATO-Russia relations. Q&A sessions provided an excellent opportunity for the group to develop in-depth discussion of these outstandingly relevant subjects.
After their visit to NATO Headquarters, the NRCC 8 group remained in Brussels: for the first time, they had an opportunity to visit the offices of the European Union, where they received a brief lecture on the structure and the goals of the EU.
NDC Public Affairs Office
(Prepared by Ms Eleonora Fuser, ITA C)
Collège de Défense de l'OTAN