NATO Defense College: An Epicenter of Strategic Education and Research

For over seven decades, the NATO Defense College (NDC) has been a cornerstone of strategic education, entrusted by NATO member nations to cultivate top-tier leadership among their officers and civilian officials. Originating from the vision of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SHAPE), the NDC stands as an international military college dedicated to a unique educational mission.

Historical Overview

The concept of a NATO Defense College was conceived by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, recognizing the need for a specialized institution to train individuals for key roles within NATO. The NATO Defense College opened its doors on November 19, 1951, in Paris. In 1966, it relocated to Rome following France's withdrawal from the Alliance's integrated military structure and the College moved to the EUR quartier of Rome. In 1999, the College moved to a new building in Cecchignola Città Militare.

The Mission and Academic Environment

The College’s primary mission is to prepare senior officers, diplomats, and civilian officials for leadership roles within NATO, in NATO-related positions in their home countries, and in other multinational organizations. This preparation focuses on strategic thinking, collaborative decision-making, and working in a multinational environment. The programme emphasizes understanding of cultural and language differences, national positions and regional perspectives, as well as the importance of achieving negotiated consensus. In this unique multinational setting, the College fosters “human interoperability”, a critical element of the overall interoperability and standardization needed for a 32-member alliance to operate effectively.

The College operates on a general principle of encouraging the greatest possible academic and intellectual freedom, for Course Members and visiting speakers alike. In accordance with the Chatham House Rule, and to allow maximum freedom of expression for our speakers, external guests are not generally permitted to attend NDC lectures.

Courses Offered

The NDC offers a variety of courses and programs tailored to different levels of experience and areas of focus:

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The Senior Course (SC): The most important course at the NDC. It lasts 5½ months and runs twice a year. Some 15 weeks are spent in the college, with the rest of the time on field studies. There is a 2-3 day crisis management exercise at the end of the course. The course is open to officers (Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels) and civilian officials and diplomats (of equivalent rank). Over 200 attend each year (approximately 25% civilian). The SC covers a broad range of strategic issues affecting the current Security environment, focusing particularly on implications for NATO, its members and partners. The focus is at the strategic (rather than operational or tactical) level, and on political-military (rather than purely military) issues. The primary educational method consists of lectures delivered by a range of external expert speakers, both at NDC and on Field Studies, followed by Q&A sessions.
Generals, Flag Officers & Ambassadors' Course (GFOAC): This course seeks to enhance mutual understanding of security concerns and of NATO's interests and capabilities among Generals and Flag Officers and high-ranking civilians including ambassadors from NATO, PfP, Med Dialogue and ICI nations, Contact Countries & Iraq.
NATO Regional Cooperation Course (NRCC): Commissioned by the North Atlantic Council at the Riga summit in 2006, after two years of preparation the NRCC was inaugurated at the College in 2009 to link issues of concern to both MD and ICI Nations and NATO, and to develop mutual understanding and networking among participants. It shares lecturers with the Senior Course (40% of the time), and also has its own separate facilities and lecturers, mostly from the ME region, and its own Faculty Advisors and staff.
Modular Short Courses (MSCs): The NDC offers five MSCs during every Senior Course for the duration 5 days. This is an opportunity for military officers and civilian officials who may not be able to attend the NDC for a six-month period.
Senior Executive Regional Conference (SERC): This week-long conference is dedicated to a select, high-profile group of diplomats, senior officials, high-ranking officers, policy planners and researchers, from NATO member states as well as from the Alliance's partner countries in the Gulf and Mediterranean area.
Integrated Partner Orientation Course (IPOC): The aim of the Integrated Partner Orientation Course (IPOC) is to improve participants' knowledge of the NATO Alliance; its missions, roles and priorities; its internal structures and organisation; and its external relations with partner nations and international institutions.

Reading Material and Lecturers

Course Members are provided with background material for each topic, prepared by a member of the Faculty, outlining the principal aspects of the topic and issues to be addressed. Course Members are also provided with a range of background reading (required & recommended) consisting of analytical articles exposing the main issues and debates. These are selected, insofar as possible, to cover a full range of issues and perspectives. The primary consideration when considering potential lecturers is their expertise: whether they well versed in the subject matter and able to offer full and frank answers to the questions posed etc. In all cases it is desirable to expose Course Members to different points of view on each topic. Often, therefore, two speakers with different national, political or professional perspectives will be invited to address a topic, in order to generate a dialogue and debate which should better expose the key issues.

Research Division

Research at the NATO Defense College, carried out by the Research Division (RD), provides the NATO's senior leaders with analyses and recommendations on current issues concerning the Alliance. The activities of the RD can help to convey NATO's positions to the wider audience of the international strategic community. The Research Division published about 20 studies and analyses, about 30 articles in journals (International Herald Tribune, International Affairs, Defense News, Politique Étrangère, Washington Times, etc.), was regularly quoted in the New York Times, Newsweek, Le Figaro and news agencies, etc. Which has a dual purpose.

Partner Engagement

NATO's support for senior military education in Ukraine started with the first "International Week", held in February 2001. Was established in 1999 at the Washington Summit as a Consortium of the Willing and founded in the spirit of Partnership for Peace (PfP). By Military Committee direction, the NATO Defense College "is the focal military point of contact within NATO" for the consortium, composed of 300 organizations in 46 countries. ADL's goal is to provide learning systems that are both more effective and more cost-effective.

The NDC currently offers 3 Fellowship Programmes to NATO’s partners in the Partnership for Peace (PfP), Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) partners and Other Military Cooperation (OMC) / Partners Across the Globe (PAG) Fellowships.

NATO shares its expertise in the field of defence capabilities with partners. A dedicated Middle East Faculty has been established at the NATO Defense College in Rome. The faculty has a unique nature, being focused on curriculum development, academic programme delivery and outreach activities. It also conducts research on the international security environment and on strategic issues, with an emphasis on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

NATO’s Broader Education and Training Network

Through the constant adaptation of its courses, training events, exercises and the introduction of new concepts and capabilities, NATO ensures it is able to respond to emerging security challenges.

NATO's efforts help to increase stability in crisis areas go beyond deploying troops. NATO launched a non-combat capacity-building mission - NATO Mission Iraq - in July 2018, at the request of the Iraqi government and in coordination with the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. NATO is helping Iraqi forces secure their country and the wider region against terrorism, and prevent the re-emergence of ISIS.

From 2004 to 2011, NATO conducted a relatively small but important support operation in Iraq that consisted of training, mentoring and assisting the Iraqi Security Forces. It was known as the NATO Training Mission in Iraq. In 2011, Iraq was granted partner status by NATO and signed a jointly agreed Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme in September 2012. This was followed by a Defence and Related Security Capacity Building Package for Iraq in 2015, which involved, for instance, a train-the-trainers course.

Key Components of NATO’s Education and Training Initiatives:

Education programmes: they aim to enhance individual knowledge and skills, and develop competencies to confront a variety of challenges;
Individual training: this focuses on the development of skills needed to perform specific tasks and duties;
Collective training: the knowledge acquired during individual training is further developed through practical application during collective training;
Exercises: they take training a step further by testing acquired knowledge during scenario-based live or computer-assisted simulations, often involving participants from different countries. Exercising is paramount for maintaining, testing and evaluating the readiness and interoperability of Allies, partners and non-NATO entities.

NATO Training and Education Centres:

The NATO School in Oberammergau (NSO), Germany: The primary operational-level training centre for students. Operational-level training focuses on joint planning of NATO operations, operations planning, defence planning, logistics, communications, civil preparedness and civil-military cooperation.
The NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Centre (NMIOTC) in Souda Bay, Greece: Conducts theoretical and practical training, including simulation, for NATO forces in surface, sub-surface, aerial surveillance, and Special Operations activities.
The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Academy in Oeiras, Portugal: Provides cost-effective, highly developed formal training to personnel (military and civilian) from NATO and non-NATO countries for the efficient operation and maintenance of NATO communications and information systems.
The Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) in Stavanger, Norway: Principally focuses on training forces at the operational level to ensure they remain interoperable and fully integrated.
The Joint Force Training Centre (JFTC) in Bydgoszcz, Poland: Supports training for NATO and partner forces to improve joint and combined tactical interoperability. The JFTC conducts joint training for tactical-level command posts and staffs in support of tactical-level commanders.
The Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) in Lisbon, Portugal: NATO's lead agency for the analysis of operations, training and experiments, and for the collection and dissemination of lessons learned. The JALLC deploys project teams worldwide, delivering analysis support to NATO at the strategic and operational levels.
The NATO Special Operations University (NSOU) in Chièvres, Belgium: Supports NATO Special Operations Forces.

Key Milestones in NATO Education and Training:

1949: Collective education and training has expanded to become an integral part of NATO’s ability to provide security.
September 1950: An integrated force under centralised command was called for as early as September 1950, following the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950.
December 1950: The first Supreme Allied Commander Europe, US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, was appointed in December 1950.
Autumn 1951: The Alliance’s first exercises were held in the autumn of 1951.
1953: During 1953, there were approximately 100 exercises of various kinds conducted by NATO.
April 1951: The need for a specialised setting to explore issues unique to the Alliance was first recognised by General Eisenhower in April 1951.
1959: The NATO Communications and Information Systems School (NCISS) was established in 1959, when a civil contractor began to train a small number of NATO personnel on what would become NATO's “ACE HIGH Communications System”.
May 2, 1959: The NATO Undersea Research Centre in La Spezia, Italy was commissioned.
1971: The Military Committee established the NATO Training Group.
1975: The NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany received its charter and present name.
1998: The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council approved the creation of the Partnership for Peace Consortium, and at the 1999 Washington Summit NATO leaders approved plans for an “Enhanced and more Operational Partnership”.
May 2002: The Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre in Monsanto (Lisbon), Portugal was established.
February 2005: The North Atlantic Council started developing the Education and Training for Defence Reform (EfR) initiative.
2012: At the Chicago Summit in 2012, NATO leaders stressed the importance of expanding education and training, especially within the context of the Connected Forces Initiative (CFI).
2014: Shortly after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, at the NATO Summit in Wales, Allies committed to enhancing capabilities and agreed to a Defence Planning Package that included, inter alia, reinforcing training and exercises.
2016: At the Warsaw Summit in 2016, Allies took stock of the eight multinational NATO Force Integration Units established on Allied territory in the eastern part of the Alliance to assist in training forces and in the reception of reinforcements when needed.
2021: At the 2021 Summit, NATO leaders agreed NATO 2030 - a transatlantic agenda for the future.

Applying to the NDC

Job Opportunities, Fellowships & Internships

Civilian candidates can apply ONLY if they meet the required qualifications. Applications from candidates who do not meet the required qualifications will not be taken into consideration. Only nationals from the 32 member countries can apply for vacancies at NATO.

Fellowships and Internships are regulated separately.

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