Major General Tony Wright provided the opening remarks for the 11th Annual Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence Conference, speaking on the importance of NATO’s ability to respond and adapt to a broad range of threats.
Allied Command Transformation is working to better understand the emerging global threat environment across the spectrum of conflict to enable the Alliance to better respond to future crises. These efforts will ensure that NATO remains ready and able to effectively respond to crises by out-thinking adversaries and potential threats. In support of this outcome, the Command is engaging with subject matter experts and academia from across the Alliance to exchange ideas to help NATO stay ahead of the threat curve.
Major General Tony Wright, Deputy Chief of Staff Strategic Plans and Policy, participated in the 11th Annual Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, from May 31st to June 1st, 2023. The topics of this year’s conference centred on the evolving security environment and the multiple challenges that the Alliance must meet, such as climate change. The conference also discussed the potential adaptive and comprehensive approaches towards these security challenges in the area of crisis management and disaster relief.
Major General Wright discussed the need for NATO to be able to respond and adapt to a wide variety of crises, highlighting the importance of the conference in providing a forum for the Alliance, Partners, and academics to generate insights that will influence future crisis management and disaster relief efforts. He also noted the importance of this conference in helping the Alliance to better understand the protection of civilians, resilience, as well as climate change and its implications on the context of future crises and disasters.
The Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence is located in Sofia, the Republic of Bulgaria, and received official accreditation as the 21st NATO Centre of Excellence on March 15th, 2015. Its primary area of responsibility, crisis management and disaster response, is coupled by a broad thematic portfolio including relevant cross-cutting topics such as resilience, climate change, protection of civilians and gender mainstreaming. The Centre of Excellence aims to act as a catalyst for enhancements to NATO’s, Allies’, and Partners’ crisis management and disaster relief operations by providing value-added education and training products, research and analysis, strategic policy recommendations, and advice by means of concept experimentation and doctrine development.