Senior Leaders’ Engagement at the Baltic Defence College

Yesterday, the Baltic Defence College’s Senior Leaders’ Engagement, lasting from 2nd-6th November 2015, kicked off with an icebreaker reception hosted by the Commandant of the Baltic Defence College, Major. Gen. Vitalijus Vaikšnoras. Formal academic activities got underway today with lectures and plenary discussions from Prof. Gwythian Prins, Emeritus Professor from the London School of Economics, and Gen. Sverre Diesen, a former Norwegian Chief of Defence, which aimed to infuse a refreshed dose of advanced strategic thinking into the participants.

The Senior Leaders’ Engagement is a pilot project initiated by the Baltic Defence College: it aims to provide a ‘capstone’ of education within the Baltic states' professional military education programme, particularly for flag officers and their civilian colleagues from national ministries of defence and foreign affairs. The academic programme is being taught using a combination of college faculty and esteemed guest speakers.

The Senior Leaders’ Engagement’s focus is on strategic changes in the ‘Wider Baltic’, a region understood to include the Baltic and Nordic states, but also including important stakeholders like Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom. The Senior Leaders’ Engagement therefore includes participants from across this increasingly important geopolitical region.

The programme will continue for the remainder of the week, culminating in discussions about the future changes likely to both empower and afflict the region over the coming decades.