International cooperation: CCOE and the Netherlands Defence College
Last night, the Netherlands Defence College organised an international event to give the students of the Netherlands International Military Cooperation Course (IMC Course) the opportunity to meet their military colleagues working for the CCOE. The CCOE and the Netherlands Defence College are co-located at the Majoor Jan Linzel Complex (MJLC), which means that the international students and the staff of the CCOE who are working and living in this military complex will frequently meet during the course of the next few weeks.
The Director of the CCOE, Colonel Eckel, first introduced his organisation to the international guests of the IMC Course. Afterwards, there was time to get to know each other and share thoughts and experiences of working in the international military field during an informal gathering.
The IMC Course
In 2022, in the spirit of Defence diplomacy, the Netherlands Defence College developed the International Military Cooperation Course (IMC Course) on behalf of the Directorate of International Military Cooperation. The 5-week course was designed for officers and civilians from non-NATO and non-EU countries who hold middle management positions in their armed forces. In the IMC 2023.1, eighteen countries (Ivory Coast, Montenegro, Lebanon, Kosovo, Burundi, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Surinam, Thailand, Chile, Rwanda, Malaysia, PeruNorth, Macedonia, Libya, Uganda) are represented.
The objective of the IMC Course is to offer participants an international perspective on current and future challenges with regard to peace and security, both globally and regionally, as well as on international military cooperation to mitigate these challenges. In addition, this course will enable participants to enhance the knowledge and skills required to work in an international staff setting. Last but not least, participants will receive information to familiarise them with the Netherlands and Netherlands' armed forces and to make them aware of possible opportunities in the area of military cooperation.The course focuses on familiarising participants with bilateral and multilateral cooperation, which is necessary to effectively address current global and regional peace and security problems. To successfully operate in the field of international military cooperation, the IMC Course participant is offered a basic understanding of the field of military diplomacy.
During the course, the participants are encouraged to share their own regional knowledge and experience, as the diverse origins of the participants are valuable contributions to the topics covered. To take full advantage of the IMC Course, the participants are asked to complete the mandatory online preparatory modules before the start of the course.
The course consists of four modules, namely peace and security challenges, multilateral cooperation on peace and security issues, international law and the law of war, and military diplomacy.
