Visit to the U.S. Embassy The Hague

On 29 July 2015, the CIMIC Centre of Excellence (CCOE) made a visit to the United States Embassy to the Netherlands for a meet and greet with the U.S. Army attaché to the ambassador, Colonel Leo Buzzerio. Making the visit were four American cadets from the United States Military Academy at West Point and two German ensigns from Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, along with two German officers as escorts.

During the two hour meeting, the cadets engaged COL Buzzerio and Holly Lindquist Thomas of the Department of State, Deputy for Economic Affairs, on a wide range of topics, from careers in the army as a foreign area officer to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP.

For the cadets and officers, it was a unique opportunity to get a better glimpse into the everyday goings on of an American embassy, especially one so uniquely situated in The Hague, a center for global politics.

Following their time at the embassy, the cadets will return to the CCOE to continue their work on a number of projects for the Center of Excellence for the remaining two weeks of their time there, where they have been working with staff members on establishment of a masters’ program and a Civil-Military Cooperation field handbook.

This article is written by CCOE/ Academia Intern/Cadet Matthew F. Morris (USA A – West Point).