Issue Nr. 1 March 2006 - NATO School

1) BOA Chairman directed NS to submit requirements for NATO Peacetime
Establishment (PE) through ACT in the upcoming PE review. These will be NATO positions “assigned
for duty at the NS.” These would constitute NATO PE, not NS PE, with the criteria for their
establishment being that they serve NATO-specific requirements, such as a HQ SACT Liaison Officer
NATO, a CRONOS administration and support section, a PfP Funding Manager, and a Public Affairs
officer.
2) NS requested that the Board help in enforcing strict adherence to ACT Directive
75-3 which governs curriculum development. There have been a number of proposals for courses at
NS that are not being developed in accordance with ACT Dir 75-3 and the systems approach to
education and training. The board concurred.
3) PfP Training and Education Centres (PTCs) were discussed as a means of
supporting NATO’s training and education requirements and as augmentation to the NATO Education
and Training Facilities (NETFs). It was agreed that NS would continue to play the primary role in
operational-level education and training. However, HQ SACT/JET would investigate the use of PTCs
for those requirements in which they are uniquely qualified.
4) There remains the unresolved issue of the Combined Joint Operations Task Force
(CJTF) courses being conducted at various HQs. This has led to duplication of effort and resources,
discrepancies in the SCs’ terms of reference, and a potential divergence of NATO CJTF doctrine and
concept. NS proposed that either the CJTF courses be conducted at NS, with the support of the
Operational and Component Commands, or NS should cancel its current CJTF course to avoid
redundancy. The BOA agreed to investigate the options and to coordinate with commands.
5) Each course at NS is supported by an Office of Primary Responsibility (OPR) from
one of the NATO Strategic, Operational, or Component Commands. The OPR serves the key function
of providing oversight of the course in partnership with the NS Course Director. The BOA discussed
the disproportional burden this has placed on the SC staffs, as a result of the growth in courses.
Consensus was reached that OPRs remain essential to the courses, but the OPR duties should be
distributed more equitably amongst the various commands.
6) As directed, the NS will initiate a systematic review of its entire curriculum to
assess the military, political and economic value of each of its courses. The results will be provided to
the BOA in June 2006, along with specific recommendations for tailoring the content to best serve the
Alliance.
d. Mobile Education Training Teams (METTs):
1) SHAPE sponsored the first-ever Russian METT at the School. It was conducted
by high-level speakers from the General Staff Academy and the Combined Arms Academy of the
Russian Armed Forces. The purpose of this one-week course was to share the functional aspects of
NATO and Russian military operations with operational planners.
2) The NS also deployed three METTs in Lille, France; Tirana, Albania; and Minsk,
Belarus. These METTs filled specific training needs in those countries for 337 students in the areas of
NATO operational planning, NATO orientation and crisis management.
e. Support to NATO Operations and Exercises:
1) Iraqi Out-of-Country Training: The Iraqi out-of-country training programme
continues to be a top priority for the NS. This quarter, 87 students from Iraq attended 3 different
courses. This makes 283 students in 13 different courses for all of 2005. In addition to the academic
content, students benefited from their exposure to Western culture and interaction in a multinational
environment.
2) International Security Assistance Force (ISAF): NS has provided instructional
support for Key Leader Training and Mission Specific Training for the SEEBRIG Kabul Multinational
Brigade. In the medium-term, in coordination with JFTC and JWC, the NS is developing three-day
instructional modules to train ISAF augmentees. In the longer-term, the NS proposes to offer resident
training and educational support to nationally-sponsored Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs).