Allied Command Transformation is working to better understand and overcome the challenges facing the Alliance, leveraging the expertise of the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre – NATO’s Lead Agent for Lessons Learned.
Allied Command Transformation is harnessing the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre’s two decades of Lessons Learned experience to better understand the challenges facing the Alliance. It seeks to leverage this knowledge to improve the Alliance’s Military Instrument of Power, as needed, to ensure it remains capable and ready. In doing so, the Centre is helping Allied Command Transformation apply Lessons Learned from across the NATO enterprise into its Warfare Development Agenda and better enable the next generation of warfighters.
As NATO’s Lead Agent for Lessons Learned, the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre is not only responsible for managing the NATO Lessons Learned Portal, but also for analysing the Portal’s content. This includes conducting Content Analysis of the Portal, either on a routine basis, reporting generally on what’s trending on it, or through ad-hoc, on-demand reports which are tailored to a customer’s specific needs regarding a topic of interest. Recent innovations in this area of analysis and reporting include the Centre’s data visualization capability which brings Portal data to life with informative and helpful graphics that are designed to make understanding Lessons Learned data easier and more effective. For example, during the COVID 19 pandemic, the Centre developed a dashboard dedicated to presenting and visualizing COVID-19 pandemic related content, allowing decision makers to gain awareness about how NATO was learning from the unfolding situation.
Speaking to the utility that the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre brings to Allied Command Transformation’s mission, the Commander of Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned, Commodore Fernando Artilheiro, said, “The Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre is a surprisingly versatile command, specialized in analysing the past to help decision makers take decisions in the present and for the future. In the context of Allied Command Transformation’s anniversary, the past two decades of Allied Command Transformation have shown how the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre, and indeed the whole strategic command, have been able to constantly adapt to the needs of the Allies and the challenges of global security threat environment. The Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre will ever stand ready as a proud member of Allied Command Transformation, to meet these challenges now and in the future.”
The Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre has always been a forward-leaning organization, and is always looking for ways to leverage emerging and disruptive technologies. As such, the Centre remains keen to test and try technology that could help with data collection, analysis, and reporting. For example, the Centre trialled an artificial intelligence interviewing voicebot application called Duchess during one of its recent studies in order to understand if interviewing could be conducted more efficiently, effectively, and conveniently. After all, an artificial intelligence interviewer can be engaged at the convenience of the interviewee, does not need to travel (resulting in cost and CO2 reductions), and can potentially be deployed to a wider audience, greatly increasing the range of data that could be collected. The results were encouraging and indicated that as artificial intelligence in this field evolves, it could become an interesting force multiplier for the Centre, and possibly NATO generally.
Other examples of the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre’s innovation efforts are the workshop on Lessons Learned Exploitation through Semantic Representation, planned to take place from 23-25 May and the development of the New NATO Lessons Learned Toolset which will eventually replace the aforementioned Portal. The workshop is intended to facilitate Lessons Learned end-users and staff to explore the ways in which incorporating semantic representation into Lessons Learned tools could better support their everyday work. The findings from this workshop will ultimately feed into the development of the New NATO Lessons Learned Tool(s) which will improve how NATO learns lessons in the future.
The Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre also provides support to the NATO Lessons Learned community through Communities of Interest in the Portal, organizing and hosting Lessons Learned events such as the NATO Lessons Learned Conference or the dedicated Lessons Learned weeks and practical workshops to help users get the most out of the Portal. It also provides a suite of training on these topics, such as the NATO Lessons Learned Staff Officers Course which is designed to help staff get to grips with the concept of Lessons Learned as well as their roles and responsibilities in this process and wider Lessons Learned community.
Although the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre’s Lessons Learned Portfolio might seem like a lot to handle for a small headquarters of 50 personnel, the Centre actually also provides two more important services to the Alliance: its Joint Analysis and Short Term Analysis capabilities and its Support to Exercises and Operations.
Joint Analysis and Short Term Analysis are in depth studies of multiple data sources, conducted for customers that require answers to complex, NATO-wide, and often enduring problems. The difference between the two types of analysis is the depth and breadth of the scope of analysis conducted, which is reflected in the time it takes for an Analysis Project Team to report back to the customer. Put simply: the more in depth a study needs to be, the more time it takes. On average, a Joint Analysis project takes six to nine months to complete, whereas a Short Term Analysis project can be completed in as little time as six to eight weeks, depending on the nature of the topic being analysed and the customers reporting requirements. For example, the Centre’s Joint Analysis study of Military Strategic Assessment looked at why Periodic Mission Reviews may not be fulfilling their purpose, and the Centre recently produced Short Term Analysis reports on Military Strategic Lessons from NATO’s Involvement in Afghanistan and the unfolding crisis in Ukraine.
Finally, the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre provides regular support to NATO Exercises through a number of activities during all stages of the exercise process, including: mentoring support, training and advice on the NATO Lessons Learned Process, contributing to the review of key exercise documentation, and collecting data for the Centre’s analysis projects. For example, the Centre recently contributed to Crisis Management Exercise 2023, NATO’s most ambitious political-military exercise to date. It provided Lessons Learned foundation training, set up and supported the Crisis Management Exercise 2023 Community of Interest on the Portal, and helped the initiation of the post-exercise Lessons Learned process, all of which materially contributed to the success of the exercise.
