Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s proposals aim at a codification of NATO’s current borders, a recovery of Russian influence in the so-called “near abroad,” and the establishment of legally binding “rules of the game” going forward in the realm of maintaining peace and stability in Europe. The November 2009 treaty’s strange lack of substance coupled with its political unfeasibility makes it particularly hard to know what to do with the Russian initiative.

A multinational team of curriculum writers met for their third workshop at the NATO Defense College, 27-29 Apr 2010, to continue work on a NATO standard reference curriculum for professional military education (PME). The curriculum will cover pre-commissioning, captain-level, and staff college-level phases of officer professional development. The Allied Command Transformation Senior Enlisted Advisor also attended with a team of experts to explore the production of a reference curriculum for non-commissioned officers. NATO requested that PfPC develop this product after receiving numerous queries from Partner countries about the existence of such a reference.

The team is led by Dr. David Emelifeonwu of the Canadian Defence Academy, and includes writers and reviewers from a combination of allied and Partner countries including the U.S., UK, Canada, Norway, Latvia, Albania, Romania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova, as depicted in the photo. Project completion is slated for 2011.

In support of NATO’s education action plan with Azerbaijan, pursuant to its Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), the PfP Consortium Education Development Working Group, chaired by Mr. John Berry, is conducting a Defense Education Enhancement Program (DEEP). Following a visit in 18-19 January 2010, a PfPC and NATO team visited the Azerbaijan MOD Education and Training Center on 12-13 April 2010 and worked with the Military College faculty and MOD representatives. The purpose of the April workshop was to begin developing the Military College of the Armed Forces curriculum for the national security and defense planning and force structure module. Dr. Jim Keagle of the U.S. National Defense University and Mr. Jean d'Andurain of NATO co-led a team of experts that included Dr. Tom Fedyszyn of the U.S. Naval War College, Dr. Mike Baranick of the U.S. National Defense University, and Dr. Stephan Anton of the Romanian National Defense University.