The NATO Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence is an important element in the Alliance’s efforts to reduce the destructive influence of hostile intelligence services.
Headquartered in Kraków, Poland, the NATO-accredited Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence benefits from having two framework nations, Poland and Slovakia. This bilateral structure ensures it also has a second, modern, multi-functional facility at the Military Training Centre in Lest, Slovakia. This also means that thanks to this highly modern infrastructure and an extremely experienced team of experts, the Centre can operate effectively as a force-multiplier for counter intelligence efforts for NATO operations, exercises, policies, concepts, and strategies. It can also function as a focal point for resources focused on the most serious and emerging threats.
The Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence skilfully implements all four pillars of the NATO Centre of Excellence programme by improving doctrine and providing state of the art training available to all member nations. The Centre conducts advanced in-residence NATO Counter Intelligence courses in Poland and Slovakia, mobile education and training team events, and focused seminars based on NATO member nations’ requirements. The Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence also strives to improve NATO and national counter intelligence lessons learned capabilities and multinational interoperability by exchanging information, best practices, and analytical products.
In addition to highly advanced courses for the counter intelligence community, the Centre also prepared an unclassified educational offering available to all Alliance staff – the Counter Intelligence Awareness Online Course to further staff competencies. Upon completion, each participant should better understand hostile intelligence threats and, above all, how to protect ourselves and NATO assets against them.
The NATO Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence also organizes a seminar for military officers or civilians who are scheduled to report to positions in the field of military diplomacy. The “Counter Intelligence Awareness Seminar For Defence Attachés” programme focuses on military, defence, and security aspects. It is a pre-deployment training preceding delegation to abroad service, intended for future defence attachés of NATO countries as a supplement to national training. The seminar will expand the knowledge and skills required to work in an international staff environment.
The Centre executes the full range of Allied Command Transformation-appointed Department Head functions across the annual Global Programming cycle. The department heads across the Intelligence sub-disciplines, and with other disciplines, ensure there is no duplication of efforts, shifting focus to current and future threats, and highlighting NATO’s shift towards Multi-Domain Operations.
The Centre’s experts work tirelessly to ensure the safety and effectiveness of NATO-led operations in an ever-changing and complex environment. One of the most visible examples is providing leadership, professional expertise, and training throughout the annual NATO Counter Intelligence exercise. This exercise brings Counter Intelligence professionals from around the Alliance to work together in a multifaceted exercise environment. It serves both as an individual and collective training event.
The modern world is changing quickly. New technologies, modern perception of the environment, new generation technical solutions, and artificial intelligence are increasingly entering everyday life. This also significantly affects military operations, which can be seen in the course of ongoing armed conflicts. Following these trends, the NATO Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence seeks and develops solutions for the Counter Intelligence community to effectively face new challenges. The response to one of these challenges is the development of a handbook for NATO Counter Intelligence operators which defines standard procedures to deal with captured Unmanned Aircraft System custody and management and sets the conditions to promote within the Alliance a shared data extraction and forensic analysis on adversary Unmanned Aircraft System capabilities.
The Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence also oversees two critical NATO publications that are the foundation for counter intelligence activities during NATO-led operations. The Centre contributes significantly to NATO’s overall doctrinal effort by providing expert knowledge and suggestions for other policies, doctrines, and procedures within the counter intelligence field. The Centre’s engagements and inputs expand the overall effectiveness of NATO leadership and operators.
The Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence continuously hones and expands its offerings to meet member nations’ needs, reflecting the Alliance’s commitment to operating skilfully in this critical area. While counter intelligence is primarily a national responsibility outside of contingencies, this Centre reflects the Alliance’s commitment to providing valuable resources and support to the entire NATO Counter Intelligence Community.