Category: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Approximately 100 scientists joined the Information Day, held at the Centre for the Development of Technology and Innovation in Madrid, to discuss the remarkable results of more than 100 SPS activities over the past 40 years that have benefited from the contributions of Spanish researchers and the future direction of the SPS Programme. The event included SPS-hosted sessions on how to develop successful project proposals, evaluation criteria and thematic areas of interest, and how to implement result-oriented research and development activities. In return, scientists shared direct testimonials of their experience working on SPS projects. Discussions about their different personal stories, achievements and experiences in their fields of expertise led to new multidisciplinary ideas in the areas of interest for the Alliance that could be pursued in the framework of upcoming SPS calls for proposals – the next of which will be launched in the fall of 2023 via the SPS website.

Among other topics, scientists outlined the progress and accomplishments in the field of emerging and disruptive technologies (EDT), such as efforts to increase the security of communications networks by connecting scientific communities that are currently researching different approaches to tackle the problem. By finding ways to integrate Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) approaches into a single solution, SPS-supported researchers are making strides towards increasing the ability to secure communications from intruders and eavesdroppers. Further presentations highlighted the results of activities aimed at using advanced sensing technologies to facilitate the detection of improvised explosive devices (IED) by police and security providers, as well as to identify biological and chemical hazards using mobile laboratories. 

With its activities, the NATO SPS Programme provides opportunities for academics, experts and officials in Spain, as well as other NATO member and partner countries, to develop proposals for innovative scientific projects. Participation in its activities helps to build and expand international scientific networks and to exchange knowledge on security-related topics. To stay up-to-date with the latest opportunities offered by the SPS Programme, please subscribe to the SPS newsletter.
 

He has a degree in law and is qualified to practice as a lawyer.

In December 1982, after passing a public competition, he was hired as an employee at the Italian Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

In March 1984 he won a public competition for an official at the “Corte dei conti”, the Italian Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), where he spent his entire subsequent career up to his appointment at the IBAN.

He worked almost 19 years, first as an auditor and then as Director at the regional Audit Chamber for Trentino – Alto Adige, acting as Senior Auditor and also IT area manager. From January 2003, after winning the competition as magistrate of the Corte dei conti, he carried out the functions of Public Prosecutor in various Regional Prosecutor offices (Sicily, Trentino, Molise), until March 2017. At the same time, starting from 2010, he served in the Audit Chamber for European and International Affairs, carrying out audit activities on the management of European funds and becoming a member of various international working groups on structural funds. As part of the work of the Section, he has dedicated himself to the activity of an external auditor of international organizations, mainly within the United Nations system, actively participating in the work of the Technical Group and the Panel of external auditors of the United Nations.

Since March 2017, he has left the prosecutor’s office and has intensified his activity in the field of international audit, being the Audit Director of the teams that performed the functions of external auditor of the ITU, ICAO and WMO; the latter office, until his appointment to the IBAN.

During his service at the Corte dei conti, Carlo Mancinelli also held various important positions: from 2015 to his appointment to the IBAN, he was a member of the board of public accounting experts at the Italian Constitutional Court; he is a member of the CERN Audit Committee; since 1 January 2021 he has been a member of the College of Auditors of the former Athena financial mechanism, now the European Peace Facility. From 2016 to 2019 he was a Magistrate delegated for the audit on financial management of the public institution INRIM – Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (National Institute for the Metrologic Research).

He has taught various courses at Italian universities and at the National School of Administration and has been a speaker at numerous seminars, as well as a trainer for public officials on the subject of liability of public employees.

From June 2020 until 31 July 2023 (position left for his appointment to the IBAN) he was also the Magistrate representative for IT systems at the Corte dei conti, and responsible for the organization’s digital transition.

The North Atlantic Council then approved his appointment as Chair of the Board (IBAN) from 1 August 2023 to 31 July 2025.

As a graduate of law and adult education theory, he first worked at the Ministry of Justice within the Department of Judicial Inspection. Apart from disciplinary matters of judicial staff and supervision of the activities of forensic experts, he dealt with monitoring the flow of court proceedings and measuring the efficiency of justice.

He published a monography on judicial inspection in 2019.

Afterwards, he moved to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and was appointed to the head of its Internal Audit and Inspection Department. He was responsible for setting up and overseeing internal audits, follow-ups, internal controls in the armed forces as well as in the civil structures of the MoD, monitoring compliance with anti-corruption measures, and investigating the causes of accidents and incidents of military aircraft. At the same time, he served as the military ombudsman and a member of the Government Council for Human Rights. On behalf of the Minister of Defence, he represented the MoD in the external audits undertaken by the Czech supreme audit office. He was also responsible for international cooperation with the inspection bodies of the armed forces of other countries.

He focused on the fair pricing and valuation of military material and launched a research project concerning valuation of military material and its life-cycle assessment.
 

The conference, which will discuss new security threats to critical infrastructure, is organised by the Prague Center for Transatlantic Relations, CEVRO Institute under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy in Prague and Vít Rakušan, the Czech First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister.

Media advisory

21 September, 09:50 (CEST)      The NATO Deputy Secretary General will deliver keynote remarks

Media coverage

• The remarks will be broadcast live on the NATO website.
• A transcript of the Deputy Secretary General’s remarks as well as pictures will be available on the NATO website after the event.

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On Monday, the Secretary General met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Mr Stoltenberg praised Türkiye’s efforts, together with the UN, to revive the Black Sea grain deal. They further discussed stepping up NATO’s efforts in the fight against terrorism, and Sweden’s path to NATO membership.

While in New York, the Secretary General is also due to meet with a number of other world leaders and senior officials, including United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, Singaporean Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan, and Jasem Al Budaiwi, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

On Thursday, Mr Stoltenberg will speak at the Council on Foreign Relations on the strategic importance of the transatlantic bond and continued support to Ukraine.

Starting on Monday (18 September 2023) the NATO-led exercise Dynamic Messenger 23 focuses on integrating Maritime Unmanned Systems into operations, including personnel, training and readiness issues. Dynamic Messenger 23 gathers more than 2000 civilian and military personnel on shore and on board ships as part of the exercise. Fourteen NATO Allies, including the host nation Portugal, are participating in the exercise, together with partner Sweden. This is the second iteration of the Dynamic Messenger series that started in 2022. The exercise is conducted under the joint leadership of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation in the United States and NATO’s Allied Maritime Command MARCOM in Northwood, UK.

Exercise REPMUS 23 (Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Unmanned Systems) takes place in the same region and focuses on capability development and interoperability.  REPMUS is led by the host nation Portugal with NATO as a key player since 2019. The exercise is co-organised by the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), the University of Porto’s Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technology (LSTS), and NATO’s Maritime Unmanned Systems Initiative (MUSI). Fifteen NATO nations are participating in the exercise, along with partners Ireland and Sweden.

Both REPMUS 23 and DYNAMIC MESSENGER 23 have developed significant partnerships between the private sector and academia, and provide guidance for technology advancements, operational concepts, doctrine, and future work programmes. Both exercises are being held around the Troia Peninsula, in Portugal. Exercise Dynamic Messenger 23 takes place from 18 to 29 September 2023 and Exercise REPMUS 23 takes place from 11 to 22 September 2023.

Subject matter expertise was provided by Major Laura Abbott (PhD candidate, John Hopkins University), Ms Assal Mahmoud, Programme Associate for WPS at the Cairo International Centre for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA), and Colonel Bertrand Peytavin, Action Officer for the South Section, Cooperative Security Division at NATO.

Gender Perspective in the Military: Lessons from Jordan

Major Abbott opened the session by cautioning against treating MENA as a monolithic region. She emphasised the importance of assessing each context on a case-by-case basis, due to the many underlying differences in characteristics such as language, religion, regime type, and post-colonial history. She introduced the Georgetown WPS Index to show how MENA countries rank on women’s inclusion in comparison to the rest of the world. Major Abbott explained the phenomenon come to be known as the ‘MENA Paradox’, whereby despite rapidly rising female educational attainment and the closing if not reversal of the gender gap in education in MENA countries, female workforce participation rates remain low and stagnant – with female youth unemployment at 31.6% compared to 18% for men. This paradox has prompted various MENA militaries to consider greater recruitment of women for officer and non-commissioned officer posts. 

Major Abbott further discussed the visibility of women in MENA militaries, underlining that, while remaining the minority, gradual progress is detectable – mostly driven by the growing spectrum of needs in the military, such as counterterrorism and intelligence. Jordan has made concerted efforts and progress in increasing the number of women serving in their armed forces. National reputation and leadership are also important in supporting this shift since they serve as change agents and role models.

Major Abbott noted that greater female engagement enables the military to operate more effectively within its cultural context, particularly in counterterrorism, border security, military intelligence, peacekeeping missions, response to humanitarian crises, and military policing. In addition, it broadens the diversity of thought, which results in the incorporation of fresh ideas, improved safety for all social groups, and overall better policy, each of which contribute to increased military legitimacy. She examined how the military can assist supporting the WPS agenda, including women’s participation in peacekeeping, the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence, and the protection of women and girls in armed conflict.

Women serving in the military in MENA countries however still face significant cultural barriers, admitted Major Abbott. By referencing the Georgetown WPS Index to show public opinion in the region concerning women’s workforce inclusion, she showed that a significant portion of the population do not support women from their family seeking outside employment. In Iraq, 53% of those polled objected, compared to 18% in the United Arab Emirates. Concluding her intervention, Major Abbott emphasised the power of National Action Plans to effect systemic change moving forward. This must however come in parallel with improved self-reflection, modelling, meaningful participation, ideas exchange, and talent management, she stressed – clarifying how an increase in the number of women in the military does not necessarily guarantee gender equality nor inclusion.

Gender Perspective in Peacekeeping: Lessons from Egypt

Speaking next, Ms. Mahmoud offered an outline of the major global changes raising questions regarding the application of the Gender Perspective. For instance, a crisis in trust has resulted in the global retreat of and existential threats to peacekeeping. In this context, the Gender Perspective can help to re-establish trust by strengthening the accountability and legitimacy of peacekeeping missions, allowing them to better meet the needs of their diverse constituents. She noted that this is especially important for MENA peacekeeping missions, because the region’s peace and security challenges are highly gendered. This holds especially true when looking at terrorism trends and experiences of forced displacement in the region.

Given these challenges, Ms. Mahmoud advocated for WPS agenda to be at the centre of peace and security interventions. The Gender Perspective is key for constructing inclusive, context-specific, and sustainable responses. Ms. Mahmoud also highlighted how CCCPA contributes to this effort by building the capacities of key stakeholders to incorporate the Gender Perspective into peace and security programming. She noted Egypt as an example of how gender modules in pre-deployment trainings has enabled personnel to improve their cultural sensitivity and respond to the differentiated needs on the ground, crucially supporting the mission in fulfilling its protection of civilians mandate.

The increase in female participation in Egyptian peacekeeping missions also reflects an ongoing shift in public understanding of the value of women’s engagement within peace processes. In September 2022, CCCPA trained the first batch of Egyptian female military contingents to be deployed in UN peacekeeping operations. It provided female peacekeepers with the opportunity to take on a wider range of roles, marking a milestone in Egypt’s contribution to peacekeeping and its overall efforts to advance the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. Ms. Mahmoud concluded her remarks by emphasising how these experiences demonstrate that WPS and inclusive peace and security interventions are mutually reinforcing.

NATO’s Partnership Tools and the Gender Perspective

Taking the floor last, Colonel Peytavin discussed NATO’s approach to practical cooperation and partnerships in the MENA region and highlighted how NATO concretely strives to integrate the Gender Perspective into these partnerships. Describing the various cooperation methods and procedures used by the Alliance to develop its relationship with partners in the region, he emphasised interoperability, capability development, and support for defence and security-related reforms. This includes the use of partnership guidance frameworks that translate broad policy into more detailed cooperation objectives. The creation of tailored frameworks for each individual partner relies on NATO’s recognition that specific partnership objectives are needed to aptly address context-specific needs. Several partners in the MENA region have integrated the Gender Perspective in their NATO partnership framework and in 2022, four MENA countries participated in nine gender-related events.

Colonel Peytavin closed his remarks by emphasising that gender may still be regarded as a non-military matter to some of NATO partners. Therefore, it is NATO’s responsibility to advise them on incorporating the gender perspective into all aspects of cooperation, wherever applicable. In other words, the gender perspective should be part of a cross-cutting interoperability enabler as well as a single area of cooperation.

A Q&A discussion brought the Deep Dive session to closure. The first question addressed how to better encourage women to pursue careers in the military domain. The speakers highlighted the importance of mentorship, modelling, education, and skills training – including, in particular, language learning. They also noted how fostering greater awareness about these opportunities amongst women in the first place is another major point. One final question centred on what more NATO can do to further advance the WPS agenda in the MENA region. The speakers pointed to a critical need for capacity building on the WPS agenda as a whole as well as on the ways it can be integrated into peace and security planning and implementation. NATO can provide unique assistance by investing in capacity building customised to different national contexts and their implementation capabilities.

Significant progress has been made towards the WPS agenda in the MENA region, with Jordan and Egypt demonstrating increased female recruitment as well as incorporation of the Gender Perspective throughout different areas of the military. At the same time, however, barriers remain, and the region continues to face gendered peace and security challenges. Integrating the Gender Perspective can improve NATO’s understanding of, and response to, the  persistent and volatile strategic challenges affecting the Middle East and North Africa, including by informing better-tailored capacity building initiatives and increased knowledge sharing  with partners.

Opening the NATO Military Committee Conference, alongside the Norwegian Minister of Defence, Mr Bjørn Arild Gram and Norwegian Chief of Defence, General Eirik Kristoffersen, Admiral Bauer thanked the hosts for their warm welcome and hostility. He then proceeded to provide an overview of the day’s agenda, which focussed mainly on the executability of the DDA family of plans: “The plans that Allies agreed in Vilnius will impact the development of all our armed forces for decades to come. We are taking bold steps to further strengthen our deterrence and defence posture. Never before have NATO and national defence plans been so closely interlinked”, he noted. When addressing the Regional Plans, he added, “they are underpinned by objective, threat-based Force Structure Requirements, which detail precisely which assets or capabilities are required in a crisis or conflict scenario. Needless to say, these plans and requirements are living documents. They will be updated as the threats that face us develop”.

The Chiefs of Defence discussed how these plans would feed into existing processes. “To turn these plans into action, we will need more troops at higher readiness; capability building and development; adapt the NATO’s command and control structures; more enablement, which includes logistics, host nation support, maintenance, military mobility, and replenishment and prepositioning of stocks; and crucially, it involves more collective defence exercise and training”, underscored the Chair in his opening remarks. This is part of NATO’s evolution from an Alliance optimised for out-of-area contingency operations to an Alliance fit for the purpose of large-scale operations to defend every inch of allied territory.

The military leaders paid tribute to their brothers and sisters in uniform: those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and to those still suffering from the mental or physical effects of their deployment. 

“Once Sweden joins, we will have a band of 3.5 million brothers and sisters in uniform who protect our great Alliance. They see together what they cannot see alone. They do together what they cannot do alone. The military profession brings immense opportunities. But it also requires immense sacrifices”, emphasised Admiral Bauer, before inviting all Chiefs of Defence to stand for a moment of silence.

The Chiefs of Defence also focused their attention on the future and NATO’s longer-term posture. The Chiefs of Defence expressed concerns about the shortages in production capacity that cause delivery times and prices for equipment and ammunition to go up. “Right now, we are paying more and more for exactly the same… and that means that we cannot make sure that the increased defence spending actually leads to more security. Our liberal economies are not apt at creating the prioritisation that is so desperately needed right now. Long term stability needs to prevail over short term profits”, stressed Admiral Bauer in his press remarks.

During the conference, the NATO Chiefs of Defence decided to extend Admiral Bauer as Chair of the NATO Military Committee for an additional 6 months and elected the Italian Chief of Defence, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone to be his successor for 2,5 years.   

This decision was taken during the Military Committee Conference in Oslo. The NATO Chiefs of Defence cited the need for continuity of leadership in a volatile security climate and amidst the largest reinforcement of the Alliance’s collective defence since the Cold War. The decision will also allow Admiral Dragone to serve out his term as Italian Chief of Defence until November 2024.

Reacting to the election result, Admiral Bauer stated: “I am honoured and humbled by the continued trust that the Allied Chiefs of Defence have placed in me. I will do my utmost to keep unifying north, south, east, west, large and small within our Alliance. And to actively reach out to NATO’s Partners around the world. Always building on the fundamental belief that there is so much more that unites us, than what divides us. And that we are truly stronger together.”

Admiral Dragone stated: “Also on behalf of Italy, I am deeply honoured to receive this prestigious assignment which I will carry out with an unreserved commitment to the success of the Atlantic Alliance and the affirmation of its founding values, freedom and democracy. NATO will be able to offer its full support to Ukraine and the challenges that are looming on an international scale. I take this opportunity to thank Admiral Bauer for the extraordinary work he has been doing and which will inspire me.“

The Chair of the NATO Military Committee represents the consensus-based views of all NATO Chiefs of Defence (CHODs) as the principal military adviser to the Secretary General, the North Atlantic Council and other senior NATO bodies. In his capacity, he guides the Military Committee’s agenda and deliberations, listening to views and working to reconcile divergent national positions or policy differences to fashion advice that all can agree to.

On Tuesday 19 September, the Secretary General will participate in the opening of the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. He will also have meetings with world leaders and high-level officials

On Thursday 21 September, the Secretary General will participate in a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations. He will also attend the Transatlantic Dinner hosted by the Secretary of State of the United States, Mr. Antony J. Blinken.

Media coverage

• A transcript of the Secretary General’s remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as photographs, will be available on the NATO website.

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Contact the NATO Press Office

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