News

Senior Course 143 travelled to Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia as part of their third Field Study. This was a key opportunity to engage with high-level practitioners, including the President of the Assembly, Members of Parliament, representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence, in order to gain insights into the defence and security priorities and challenges faced by this Balkan nation.

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NATO’s “Expert Group on the South” met at the NATO Defense College on 12 December 2023. Since the appointment of the expert group by way of the Secretary General’s initiative at the Vilnius Summit earlier this year, the Group has been entrusted to undergo a comprehensive reflection on existing and future threats, challenges, and opportunities for NATO’s engagement with partner nations, international organizations, and other relevant actors on its southern flank, particularly the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel. The final report and the Expert Group’s recommendations will be presented at the next NATO Summit in Washington, D.C. in July 2024.

Bratislava, Slovakia, was the second stop of the third Field Study of the academic programme of Senior Course 143. The visit took place at the Slovak Ministry of Defence where the NATO Defense College (NDC) Commandant, Lieutenant General Max A.L.T. Nielsen, and Senior Course 143 were welcomed by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic, Lieutenant General Ľubomír Svoboda, and Ms Jana Kotorova, Director of International Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The flagship course of the NATO Defense College, Senior Course 143, travelled to Copenhagen, Denmark, as the first stop of the third Field Study of their curriculum, to learn from leading practitioners about the Danish defence and security strategies and how they respond to the complex global security landscape.

The Indo-Pacific Seminar, held at the NATO Defense College from November 29 to December 1, offered a valuable opportunity to gain a strategic overview of key political, economic, and security-related issues in the region. The Seminar equips Course Members with crucial analyses of geopolitical tendencies; an in-depth look at the Chinese strategic agenda; and discussions on emerging security risks and their implications for NATO.

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The President of the Czech Republic, H.E. Mr Petr Pavel, addressed Senior Course 143 of the NATO Defense College and Ambassadors from NATO and selected partner countries, on 28 November 2023.

The Negotiation, Mediation, and Decision-Making Exercise (NMDX) was conducted last week at the NATO Defense College, from November 20 to 24, and provided Senior Course 143 an opportunity to implement a portion of the overall NATO Crisis Management Process. The five-day exercise is designed to assist Course Members in enhancing their comprehension of techniques for negotiation, multinational consensus- building, and mediation.

The Ambassador of Türkiye to Italy, H.E. Mr Ömer Gücük, visited the NATO Defense College (NDC) on 23 November 2023 to gain a better understanding of the College and discuss further steps in the cooperation between the NDC and Türkiye.