13 Jan. 2003

Defence planning after Prague The SHAPE School in Oberammergau, Germany, is hosting two symposia on meeting defence planning challenges post-Prague. The symposia are being held between 13 and 17 January and focus on NATO-specific and partner-specific issues. On 13 January, NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson, gave the keynote address in which he outlined the commitments made at the Prague Summit and the challenges they pose to defence planners. He emphasised the advantage defence planning offers in obliging us to consider - on a systematic basis - the relation between NATO's purposes and its capabilities and underlined the importance of the transformation effort, endorsed at Prague, in light of today's new security threats. The first symposium entitled "Reshaping the Alliance after the Prague Summit" focused on the numerous defence planning issues that have been raised by the recent transformation of the Alliance. They included areas such as capabilities, with lessons learnt from the Defence Capabilities Initiative and the challenges of the Prague Capabilities Commitment, touching on role specialisation, air-to-air refuelling, armaments planning and force planning, as well as standardisation. Other areas of discussion included the implementation of the new command structure and the division of responsibilities between the two strategic commands, the NATO Response Force, NATO-EU issues and the next steps in Force planning and the integration of the seven invitees. The second symposium will focus on Partnership for Peace (PfP) and will start with the security situation in the Euro-Atlantic area after Prague and the implications for partners. After having set the scene, participants will discuss how to turn new PfP approaches into reality and how to adapt the existing PfP tools and mechanisms. The two symposia are attended by members of the defence planning community and include high-level representatives from the military, NATO and other international organisations, as well as government officials from NATO and partner countries. Additional information: The official website of the SHAPE School in Oberammergau, Germany