Defense Education Enhancement Program: The NATO Functional Clearing-House on Defense Education

Abstract

IntroductionIn the immediate aftermath the Cold War period the 1990s, NATO was highly engaged with the armed forces number states the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe-based Warsaw Pact. The intent this engagement was to assist their militaries the process Western-style transformation as part their national preparation for interoperability and potential integration with NATO. One the major supporting components for this NATO process was the development regionally focused clearing-houses.The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines clearing-house as a central agency for the collection, classification, and distribution, especially information;.... [a] channel for distributing information or assistance. In the case NATO, these regional clearinghouses were to serve an integration function for the NATO member states to provide specific support for the transformation militaries former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact countries. The NATO member states would participate these periodic meetings to identify the required assistance needs on the part the non-member target states that were not being filled (gaps that existed the support process), and to determine which member nations would be willing to support efforts to meet those needs through the execution various programs and individual events.After heads state and government created the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program 1994, they developed number tools to assist partners, including the perpetuation the original clearing-house concept. A clearing-house had been existence at NATO headquarters up to the late 1990s, when NATO realized the difficulty meeting partner requirements with offers from Allied nations when the partner states participated the same meeting, sometimes the same room. Several Allies made decision to reinvent the clearing-house tool by taking regional approach after NATO disestablished the clearing-house Brussels. The first regional clearing-house was established support the three Baltic nations: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. This was followed the first decade the twenty-first century by regional clearing-houses designated for Southeastern Europe (Balkan countries) and the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, later joined by the Republic Moldova). In addition, one clearing house exists solely to provide support to Ukraine. Over time, these regional clearing-houses have become critical security cooperation management tools for the Alliance its effort to support the transformation the armed forces partner nations.The Creation the First Functional Clearing-HouseUntil the mid-2000s, NATO support to partner states had primarily focused on the guidelines the 1999 Training and Education Enhancement Program (TEEP), which was intended to promote interoperability in the field. NATO defense reform efforts gained added momentum with the creation the Partnership Action Plan on Defense Institution Building (PAP-DIB) at the 2004 Istanbul Summit. The PAP-DIB Action Plan outlines the specific goals that NATO and partner states want to achieve the area defense institution building. One the functional subject areas which NATO provided support since the mid-2000s, via the International Staff, was that defense education. Defense education support was designed to address interoperability of minds - set common references, doctrines, and approaches to problem solving that would allow officers from different backgrounds to understand each other. NATO support for defense education is defined the EAPC document, Implementing the PAP-DIB: The Education & Training for Defense Reform Initiative - Guidelines for Development.1 It has been reconfirmed by the Berlin decisions on partnerships and discussions at the 2012 Chicago Summit that identified the need for the further development partner capacity through defense education. …