On the 26th and 27th of September 2022, the Education and Training Section of the NATO Command and Control Centre of Excellence (NATO C2COE) organised the second Annual Discipline Conference (ADC) for the Operations Planning, Operations Assessment and Alternative Analysis (OPOAAA) discipline. The NATO C2COE is Department Head (DH) for this discipline).
This discipline is one of the numerous disciplines within the NATO Global Programming (GP) for Education & Training, Exercises and Evaluation (ETEE), which steers Education and Training (E&T) within NATO. Each discipline has its own specific focus to prevent duplication and inefficiency. Based on formal requirements by the several Requirements Authorities (RA) within NATO, DHs strive to find solutions to meet these requirements. With this role, NATO C2COE bridges the gap between requirements and solutions and coordinates activities within the scope of OPOAAA. Within every discipline, coordination, informing and decision-making is done during an Annual Discipline Conference which is an open forum for discipline-related stakeholders to discuss, coordinate and improve the subjects (and discipline as a whole).
This ADC(-) had a limited list of participants and aimed to improve connection to new entities and colleagues within the community and to connect the first ADC 2021 with the third (larger) ADC 2023 planned for 23rd & 24th of May 2023. The rest of the OPOAAA community was informed by the participants during a VTC information summary at the end of this ADC.
The NATO C2COE will publish a Discipline Alignment Plan (DAP) and will, based on experiences and the ADC discussions, continue its role as DH. With the challenge of ‘connecting the dots’, finding and orchestrating appropriate solutions for now and the coming future, the NATO C2COE has an improved focus and scope on this topic.
As Chairman Major Guus Peters mentioned: “Conducting an ADC is an annual milestone for a discipline and a great opportunity to connect people, improve mutual understanding and find ways to improve the education and training activities in order to have (even) better NATO Staff Officers.”
With a new sequence of meetings, workshops and conferences driving Global Programming, the NATO C2COE decided to conduct the next ADC on the 23rd and 24th of May 2023. The planning process will start as soon as possible. The organising Education and Training Section will continue its endeavour to deliver E&T solutions (product, support and coordination as DH) with a C2 focus.
