Today, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, General Philippe Lavigne, French Air and Space Force, hosted Permanent Representatives to NATO. These Ambassadors to NATO are senior representatives from each NATO member nation and, together, they sit on the highest political decision-making body in NATO: the North Atlantic Council. This assembly brings together representatives of each member country to discuss policy and strategic issues requiring collective decisions and provides a forum for wide-ranging consultation between members.
This visit served as an excellent opportunity to further tie the work of Allied Command Transformation to NATO’s priorities and define how this Strategic Command contributes to effective deterrence and defence today, while preparing the Alliance to meet future challenges. During their time at NATO Allied Command Transformation, a wide range of topics were covered which encompassed Strategic Foresight Analysis and Deterrence, Multi-Domain Operations, Digital Transformation and next generation tools to support Cognitive Superiority and decision making throughout NATO.
Throughout the course of the engagement, General Lavigne stressed the need to accelerate the pace of change across the Alliance to ensure NATO can proactively address any challenges it might face. He also highlighted the unique role NATO Allied Command Transformation carries as a catalyst for, and facilitator of, that change.
“Hosting the Permanent Representatives to NATO today afforded us the opportunity to strengthen this vital political and military connection, fostering an increased shared understanding of military matters in an effort to support more informed, and faster, decision making,”
Gen Philippe Lavigne, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation
The programme of events allowed for ample discussion with the Permanent Representatives after short presentations on key topics. This included Strategic Foresight Analysis 2023, which looks ahead twenty years, assesses security drivers, and supports studies on Russian and Chinese strategies as well as climate change. Another topic focused on the Alliance Concept for Multi-Domain Operations, which centres on the synchronization of military activities across all warfare areas, in conjunction with other stakeholders within industry and NATO nations. Additionally, the discussion of Digital Transformation stressed that it must be prioritized with a sense of urgency; reshaping our people, processes, policies and procurement methods, as well as harnessing technological advances.
Ambassadors were introduced to an active scenario-based modelling event, where they engaged in discussions about potential NATO responses. Following the event, representatives from NATO Allied Command Transformation demonstrated the value of these programmes using Modelling and Simulation tools under development, which highlighted their potential benefits for the Alliance’s decision-making processes. The Permanent Representatives were also briefed on other priorities including Cognitive Superiority and Cognitive Warfare, both of which can be greatly enhanced by the tools used during the scenario demonstration.
As NATO Allied Command Transformation leads the strategic warfare development of Alliance military structures, forces, capabilities and doctrines, hosting the Permanent Representatives to NATO afforded a valuable opportunity to demonstrate the significance of current tasking. These ventures serve as continuous drivers for change and will ensure the Alliance is able to adapt quickly to facilitate faster, and better informed, decision-making in a rapidly evolving and complex global security environment.
