Senior Afghan military and civilian officials think strategy during NATO-sponsored seminar
A group of senior military and civilian Afghan officials focused on long-term thinking, planning and cooperation among different institutions, during a week-long seminar at Allied Command Operations in Mons and NATO Headquarters in Brussels from 4 to 8 November 2013. The seminar paved the way for further cooperation between Afghanistan and NATO in the fields of defence education, professional development and strategic planning in 2014 and beyond.
This was the fourth iteration of the annual Senior Leaders' Executive Seminar and Exercise, which is organised as part of the Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP) with Afghanistan. DEEPs are tailored programmes through which the Alliance advises partners on how to build, develop and reform educational institutions in the security, defence and military domains.
"In our military training and education, lack of attention to strategic foresight has been our main shortfall. These courses, conducted over the last four years with NATO, have provided an opportunity to cultivate this capacity, and they have afforded us a greater degree of success in the professional development of our security forces," said Major General Asadullah Akramyar, Deputy Assistant Minister of Defence for Policy and Strategy, who led the Afghan delegation.
Building the capacity of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) through defence education is an important element of the Declaration on Enduring Partnership, which was signed by NATO and Afghanistan at the Lisbon Summit in November 2010.
“Your presence here is a demonstration of commitment to our cooperation in the realms of defence education and strategic leadership development,” said NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, as he congratulated all participants before handing out the course certificates.
“NATO’s commitment to Afghanistan will remain beyond 2014,” Ambassador Vershbow stressed. “Firstly through the new Train, Advise and Assist mission, called Resolute Support, including the continuity of financial support for the ANSF. Secondly, through the Enduring Partnership between NATO and Afghanistan, by offering concrete opportunities for Afghanistan to benefit from NATO’s Partnership tools, like defence education.”
Reviewing policies and processes
Representatives responsible for strategic planning and policy development in the Afghan General Staff, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Directorate of Security took part in the seminar. They worked together over the course of the week to review national security policy documents and evaluate inter-ministerial processes central to the execution of current defence and security objectives.
That dialogue was followed by a Defence Strategic Planning Exercise, facilitated jointly by an academic team of professors of Strategic Art from the U.S. Army War College and the Romanian National Defence University, NATO staff officers and the head of the Afghan delegation. The table-top exercise – guided by specific topics proposed by the Afghan authorities – served to outline strategic approaches to specific political, civil-military, inter-agency and multinational challenges that their government currently faces.
The seminar was conducted by NATO's Political Affairs and Security Policy Division with the support of the Allied Commands for Operations and for Transformation, as well as NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division.