The Electives' week completed

The primary focus of students’ education is on developing necessary skills and knowledge to excel in an unknown future where the only constant is the change. Electives are the key academic activity to support achieving this, which makes them an essential part of the professional education within the curricula of the Higher Command Studies Course (HCSC), the Joint Command and General Staff Course (JCGSC) and the Civil Servants Course (CSC).

In the spring semester, from 14 to 18 March the Baltic Defence College (BALTDEFCOL) conducted eight different electives of which four were offered for external participation: 

• NATO Certified the BALTDEFCOL Operational Level Energy Security Course;

• NATO Certified the NATO Intermediate Strategic Communications Course;

• The European Union certified the Cyber Defence Policy on National and International Levels;

• The Strategic Level Operations Planning Course.

All these electives were conducted in hybrid mode. A total of more than 130 people participated in these electives. Cooperation has always been a very important part of the BALTDEFCOL, so due to close cooperation with Centres of Excellence in the Baltic states and beyond, the attractiveness and high quality of the electives have been raised.

The Operational Level Energy Security Course aims to apply energy security factors relevant to NATO by introducing fundamental concepts and analysing energy security developments in the current geopolitical situation and their potential impacts on Alliance security and military operations at the operational level.

Cooperation with specialists from the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence (ENSEC COE) and their extensive network of subject matter experts has been vital to ensure the course quality. In addition to the ENSEC COE, experts from the Energy Academic Group of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, NATO Headquarters, European Hybrid COE, TOBB University of Economics and Technology (Ankara), and the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication all contributed to underpin the participants understanding of the importance of the Energy Security.

The aim of the Intermediate Strategic Communications Course is to educate planners allowing to better integrate StratCom into planning and execution at all levels within their respective headquarters. Lectures were delivered in cooperation with the experts from NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, the Baltic countries, NATO Command Structure and NATO Force Structure. The focused lectures allowed to comprehend STRATCOM framework, STRATCOM narrative, implementation of STRATCOM, information environment presenting both challenges and opportunities for military and civilian leaders. 

In support of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC), BALTDEFCOL conducted a second course titled Cyber Defence Policy on National and International Levels. The course aims at providing participants with the conceptual framework to facilitate strategic thinking about cyber defence and develop an understanding on how to integrate cyber considerations into national as well as international security policy and strategy formulation. The course provided an integrated overview of contemporary geopolitical affairs and security issues to enable to think critically about issues of strategic importance. 

The Strategic Level Operations Planning Course aims at preparing officers and civil servants from all courses at the BDC for service in NATO HQs, or when taking duties as the counterparts in the respective national MODs and CHODs staffs. This year's course is the second iteration and for this edition, the invitation was forwarded to the three Baltic Framework Nations and staff members from NATO Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger. The course aims to provide the participants with in-depth knowledge on NATO's decision making, on the challenges of consensus building, and as importantly, network building. The interest in this event has been quite high reaching almost 30 participants.

Mark your calendars, the same courses will take place from 20 to 24 March 2023 in Tartu. Check BALTDEFCOL webpage for more information later this year!