General Philippe Lavigne, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, led a Command delegation that included General Chris Badia, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, to the recent Munich Security Conference where they joined high-level representatives from across NATO nations and around the world. The Munich Security Conference took place on February 17th – 19th, almost one year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and provided an opportunity to re-affirm Allied cohesion and political and military commitment to the rules-based international order. Command leadership spoke about key aspects of the Command’s transformation mandate including innovation, intelligence, space and military perspectives regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All of these discussions occurred within the broader context of international and European security.
Back in the United States, General Lavigne emphasized that “these two days of cross-fertilization, on and off the stage, where we engaged with, and learned from one another provided a unique and priceless chance to work as a team: to better understand the challenges and opportunities of today and tomorrow, thanks to enlightening interventions by experts on topics such as Ukraine, Russia, Escalation Dynamics, the ability of our industries to support the war effort; and on how to be stronger together. Following brainstorming sessions with Heads of State and Government, a number of relevant proposals were put forward. Now is the time to review, develop and ultimately implement them.”
In one of his key interventions, he explained NATO’s posture in the current international security environment, saying, “The Alliance will continue to do what it does best: providing the best insurance possible. We will continue to be a defensive Alliance, as we have for over 70 years. Look at the new Strategic Concept and its renewed focus on collective defence. We will continue to improve our readiness and our resilience. Show we are better at understanding escalation dynamics; Better at making use of new technologies in all domains and in all environments; Towards a Multi-Domain Operations enabled Alliance.”
NATO defines Multi-Domain Operations as ‘the orchestration of military activities across all domains and environments, synchronized with non-military activities, to enable the Alliance to create converging effects at the speed of relevance’. It is an evolutionary concept to describe emerging thinking applicable across all three of NATO’s Core Tasks. The Alliance’s approach to Multi-Domain Operations enables the synchronized planning and execution of activities across all domains and environments, at scale and speed. It also enables effective collaboration with the other instruments of power, partners and stakeholders. This is a critical concept for NATO’s military transformation and its need has been re-affirmed by lessons identified from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
General Badia reiterated the importance of the concept when he noted, “Multi-Domain Operations requires cutting-edge technology especially in the space-domain and everything needs to be done to maintain the scientific, conceptual and technological advantage.”
General Lavigne will share perspectives from the Conference to national military leaders at an upcoming Military Committee visit to Headquarters, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation.