Although well-supported on the special issues close to their own areas of responsibility, Flag Officers, civil servants, and representatives often receive comparatively less reliable information and input on the strategic and global context. Trustworthy updates on the trends of political-military developments and debates that are factual, objective, and free from alliance politics are often missing.

To meet this need, the GCSP offers a unique professional development and networking opportunity for Flag Officers and high-level experts on contemporary politico-military developments and current and future trends in multinational approaches to security challenges.

It offers Flag Officers, civil equivalents, and high-level experts a unique opportunity for professional development and networking. Started in 2008, this course is funded by the Swiss Government and conducted in cooperation with the Partnership for Peace (PfP).

The security challenges of the 21st century are diverse and highly complex.
Terrorism, extremism, growing nationalism, a declining desire for multilateralism, climate change, migration, unbalanced demography, cyber-attacks, humanitarian crises and pandemics as well as the increasing use and importance of highly complex technologies amongst others are just some of the facets that modern society has to deal with today. The structures and processes for this are not always in place, and there is often a lack of will or resources to implement promising solutions.

However, silo thinking in particular prevents often a comprehensive approach. Here we would like to tackle selected areas and discuss them with the participants.

Learning objectives

The overall objectives are to

• broaden the perspectives of the participants about security challenges and approaches to them,
• establish a network between participants,
  and
• allow them to develop channels of communication to foster common ground.

Overall, the focus is to support the work of the participants in a bilateral and multilateral environment.

Modules

The course includes

• briefings,
• small group discussions / presentations and
• dialogue with expert lecturers.

The course is open to senior officers, high-level civil servants from security related ministries, and high-level representatives from (human) security related International Organisations, Inter-governmental organisations and non-governmental organisations from NATO, PfP, Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative countries, South Asian, East Asian and African countries.

This seminar is offered free of tuition charge. All other expenses, including accommodation and travel, are the responsibility of the participant. In a limited number of cases, scholarships may be available. GCSP reserves the right to modify the programme dates or location.