NATO HQ 21 Mar . 2005

Video interview with Catherine Vendat and interns working at NATO Multimedia Audio file .MP3/***Kb Video interview Q: Miss Vendat, you are the Deputy Assistant Secretary General for the Executive Management Division here at NATO. Can you tell us why and how the NATO Internship Programme was developed? CATHERINE VENDAT (Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Human and Financial Resources): Thank you Jennifer for the question. The NATO Internship Programme has been developing for some time already. Under our gender balance and diversity program initiative from the Prague Summit in 2002, a need has been identified that we as an international staff better reflect the societies and the variety of cultures that we come from. One of the many means to do so was by creating a centralized internship programme. While NATO did have interns before we started this programme, the interns could only come through the delegations and there was no way of systematically reaching out to all member states. As NATO has two official languages, I will continue in the other language if you allow me. L'OTAN espère, grâce à ce programme de stage, bénéficier des connaissances des stagiaires qui viennent de cultures différentes et qui sont souvent des étudiants très frais, des étudiants très récents, qui ont des connaissances dans des multitudes de domaines d'intérêts pour l'organisation. De leur côté, les stagiaires auront eux l'occasion de pouvoir connaître et comprendre un peu mieux comment fonctionne une organisation internationale comme l'OTAN. Ils auront également l'occasion de mieux comprendre le rôle et les missions des différentes divisions qui composent le Secrétariat international de l'OTAN. Afin de donner une image plus vivante de ce que représente le programme de stage pour l'organisation, je sais que maintenant vous allez interviewer des personnes, des stagiaires, et des personnes qui reçoivent les stagiaires afin qu'ils puissent exposer leurs attentes, leurs expériences et ce que ce programme signifie réellement pour eux et je vous remercie de cette initiative. Q: Ebru, you work within the Executive Management Division, can you tell us a little bit more on how the programme has been implemented and how it's been running so far. EBRU: Jane thanks for the question. Basically when I got to NATO, the North Atlantic Council had passed the decision that NATO should have a centralized Internship Programme program in June 2004. So one of the first things we did over the summer and fall was to consult with divisions and intern managers to get their feedback on what they were looking for and what the needs of NATO as an organisation was. We of course also looked at other international organisations to see how they run their internship programs. I'm really pleased to say we had really positive feedback from intern managers and divisions, and we were able to go online with the programme in December 2004. Our first call for applications was December to March 2005 and we had a very high volume--over 600 people applied. All NATO member countries were represented in the application pool and the gender balance of applicants was 50/50. With these numbers that we have, the programme is quite competitive and we're aiming to have the first group of interns start in the fall 2005. Q: Benedikta can you tell me where you're from and which division you work in here at NATO? BENEDIKTA: I'm from Bonn, Germany, and I work in the Division of Political Affairs and Security Policy and within that Division in the Section for NATO Multilateral Affairs which deals with NATO member countries and also international organisations mainly EU, OSCE and the UN. Q: Can you tell me your background and what you did before your internship here at NATO? BENEDIKTA: Before coming to NATO I did a PhD in modern history in England and I worked on the occupation of Germany after the Second World War in the period from '49 to '55, and I looked at- or my focus was, main focus was on German rearmament and its admission to NATO; so that's how I got interested in NATO. Q: Felix, can you tell me where you're from and what division you work in here at NATO? FELIX: I'm from Germany and I work for Defence Investment Division, and it's the counter-terrorism unit I work for. Q: And how did you come about working at NATO? FELIX: Well I did quite a lot of security studies before in my studies of political science at Berlin University and so this was academics, this was all the theory about international security organisations, and so I thought it would be nice to see how it is in practical and therefore once I did an internship with the German Embassy to Southern Korea, this was bilateral. So, I wanted to see how it works in an international security organisation and that's what I'm here for. Q: Sophie, peux-tu te présenter? SOPHIE: Alors je suis française, j'ai étudié les relations internationales à Strasbourg et à Bruxelles, et là depuis le 1er février je suis stagiaire à la Division de la Diplomatie publique. Q: Et quelles sont tes activités, qu'est-ce que tu fais ici à l'OTAN? SOPHIE: Alors je suis dans la section des Relations extérieures et je travaille au côté de l'officier de liaison presse française. J'aide à préparer et à organiser les visites de groupes français et également à préparer les briefings qui servent pour certaines de ces visites; et je travaille aussi au côté de l'officier de liaison presse turque. Q: Peter, can you tell me where you're from and what division you work in here at NATO? PETER: Sure I am from Denmark, Copenhagen, and I'm working Operations Division in NATO and working with Civil Emergency Planning. Q: How do you think this experience has helped you for your future endeavours? PETER: I think definitely that having a NATO internship on my CV will do me good in the future. Also, I mean you learn a lot of things being here, about the procedures; little practical things but also more general things like international politics, international relations, and then you will be able to create a network of people that you can keep in contact with in the future and hopefully use in your future profession. Q: Frederic, can you tell me where you're from and what division you work in here at NATO? FREDERIC: Sure I am from Bonn, Germany, the University of Bonn, and here at NATO I work for the Public Diplomacy Division for the Countries Section, that is mainly for the German Information Officer. Q: How has your overall experience been here at NATO? What were your expectations when you started, did you have any reservations, and have your expectations been met? FREDERIC: Well I've only been here for about two months but so far my experience has been superb I have to say that. My expectations when I got here was that it was a lot of committee work, a lot of visitors, groups, and my reservation was maybe that, it's such a huge place, with over 3,000 people that you would just get lost and there is anonymity but that was entirely not true when I came here. I found out that there is actually a very good network of interns as well and there is a group of about 25-30 interns. We do a lot of stuff here at NATO, we meet for lunch, and it's a very international thing there are Europeans, North Americans working together. We're doing stuff on the weekends as well. We've actually travelled a little bit around in Belgium in the last couple of weekends so it's a very good experience. My supervisor is a very cool person as well and I am having a great time here and I'm looking forward to the rest of my internship. Q: Melissa, can you tell us where you're from and what division you work in here at NATO? MELISSA: Of course. I'm Canadian and I work in the Public Diplomacy Division here at NATO. Q: Qu'allez-vous faire après votre stage à l'OTAN et est-ce que cette expérience vous a aidé? MELISSA: Oui je pense que cette expérience a été très bénéficiaire pour moi. Après ça je vais étudier pour une maîtrise dans la communication internationale et cette expérience m'a donné l'envie pour travailler dans une carrière de relations internationales et de sécurité.