The 2nd week of this Study Period, addressing the present and future of NATO ran from Tuesday 26th to Friday 29th April. In addition to members of the Senior Course, the Study Period was attended by participants of the NATO Regional Cooperation Course (NRCC). The academic programme comprised lectures dealing with Insurgency and Counter-insurgency, the Strategic Challenge of NATO Operations (Afghanistan and Counter-piracy) and the NATO’s Partnership Initiatives. On Friday, the Course SACEUR addressed the courses via VTC.
The first day started with a lecture on Insurgency and Counter-insurgency by a panel with Col Alex ALDERSON (GBR) and Col Michel GOYA (FRA).Col ALDERSON is the Director of the Land Forces Stability Operations and Counterinsurgency Centre in UK. He discussed and defined insurgency with reference to notable examples in the UK and USA history and he described how insurgency is manifest today. Col GOYA gave the French point of view on insurgency largely illustrated by the example of Algeria. He also addressed the differences in view of French with other nations COIN concepts. This lecturer was followed by a VTC with DCOM ISAF who briefed on the challenges and issues of multi-national operations on the backdrop of the on-going operation in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday 27th April, Rear-Admiral Mike GILDAY, Director of operations of the Joint Force Command Lisbon, overseeing Operation Ocean Shield and Rear-Admiral Guido RANDO, Deputy Operational Commander of the EU Naval Force deployed in the operation ATALANTA explained the strategic challenges related to the fight against piracy and the legal implications of counter-piracy operations even as the coordination and the cooperation between all international actors operating in the Somali basin.
A panel lecture on the NATO’s Partnership Initiatives was scheduled on Thursday 28th April. Dr Carlo MASALA of the International Relations University of the German Armed Forces examined in detail the current state of the Partnership for Peace initiative and the prospects for future development of these partnerships. Dr Alberto BIN, Director of the Partnerships and Cooperation section in the Political affairs and Security Policy Division at NATO HQ gave the NATO approach to the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative and Prof. KHADER, Director of the Arab Study and Research Center at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) analysed the recent and current developments in North-Africa and the Middle East and their impact for NATO.
And last but not least, on Friday 29th April SACEUR addressed the Senior Course 118 via VTC from EUCOM (Stuttgart). In his briefing he covered all the challenges for NATO in the 21st century. This VTC was extremely well received by the Course Members.
This ended a very successful Study Period in Rome. This Study Period will be completed by the second Field Study during which NATO HQ, SHAPE and ACT will be visited.
NDC Public Affairs Office
NATO Defense College