Civil Military Co-operation Centre of Excellence

On Thursday, 11 February 2010, the Chief of Staff HQ SACT, Vice Admiral Robert G. Cooling (UK Royal Navy) paid a visit to the CCOE. As the CCOE is affiliated to NATO like all Centres of Excellence, the Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is the superior agency in steering and guiding them in the multinational perspective. Therefore, this visit was dedicated to receive a first impression and to settle further evolvement of the CCOE in support of NATOs transformation process. After the arrival of Vice Admiral Cooling he got informed on the CCOE’s vision, emerging CIMIC doctrine, products, networks and capabilities. Vice Admiral Cooling had an open dialogue on the way ahead with the directorate and the staff of the CCOE. He stressed the increasing importance of CIMIC as a facilitator for Civil-Military Interaction and operational requirements in a comprehensive setting.
Vice Admiral Cooling took the opportunity to get first hands impression on the training and education products of the CCOE, he visited the ongoing NATO CIMIC Staff Course and followed a lecture on political impacts during operations from Lieutenant General (retired) Kammerhoff. Referring to his extensive experience in the Balkans the general shared his insights with cooperation between military and civil actors and the value of CIMIC during a mission. The Vice Admiral took the opportunity to share his views with the students of the NATO CIMIC Staff Course. This discussion illustrated top level relevance of CIMIC in current operations.
This can be seen as a follow up initiative on the lecture by Major General van Loon held last November. The CCOE intends to further incorporate high-level briefers for every upcoming Staff Course in order to gain the most possible benefits for our students and staff members.