Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen will present the keynote address on Friday, Nov. 13 to more than 60 representatives from the North Atlantic Treaty Council nations meeting in Norfolk, Va., Nov. 12-13.
The purpose of the conference, hosted by the United States, is to share ideas in a joint effort to find better ways to meet the security challenges of the 21st century. Subjects to be covered during the conference are: the need for a common operational vision; compatible systems of command, control and communication; logistics and interoperability.
The alliance will celebrate its 50th anniversary at a summit in Washington, D.C. in April 1999. The summit will note past achievements, but the primary focus will be on significant steps to make the next 50 years just as successful. To achieve this goal, attendees at the Norfolk conference will also be asked to put together specific recommendations concerning summit initiatives on a common operational vision; command control and communications; logistics and new intellectual tools.
- Norfolk was chosen as a site for the meeting because it is the center for concept
- development and joint warfighting experimentation.
