CHIPS Articles: NATO Centers of Excellence

In the last decade, NATO realized that, as an organization, it lacked some specific skills that were necessary for the modern warfighter to dominate the battlespace. Nations became concerned that competitors could gain asymmetric advantage, but using ?normal” processes to develop needed skills would have either taken too long to materialize or were politically unobtainable.

A practical approach to address foreseeable needs was devised using the transformation process that was started during the 2002 Prague Summit. The Center of Excellence (COE) concept, born under the transformation aegis, was a reasonable solution to problems that were unequally viewed by members. It seemed prudent to permit like-minded Alliance nations to work together to help overcome concerns.

“Although not part of the NATO command structure, COEs are part of a wider framework supporting NATO Command Arrangements. Designed to complement the Alliance’s current resources, COEs cover a wide variety of areas, with each one focusing on a specific field of expertise to enhance NATO capabilities,” according to NATO.

Supreme Allied Command Transformation (SACT), located in Norfolk, Virginia, assists nations wishing to establish a COE, but the NATO Military Committee accredits COEs. The Military Committee’s accreditation rules state that a COE must meet a North Atlantic Treaty Organization requirement, provide needed capabilities not provided by other NATO entities, maintain qualified subject matter experts and assure that any training and education meets NATO standards, according to the NATO Centers of Excellence Accreditation Criteria, NATO Military Committee, International Military Staff Memorandum 0416-04, of June 11, 2004.

More broadly, COEs must follow NATO safety and security regulations, benefit all NATO nations and entities (not merely the host and supporting nations) and maintain connectivity with NATO Strategic Commands, subordinate commands, agencies and member nations with the overall goal to assist NATO with transformation of the Alliance.

Key Benefits

COEs bring value to the Alliance, as well as, individual nations. As international military organizations associated with NATO, but not part of the force structure, they enable these benefits to materialize. The benefits primarily include position independence from NATO and collocation of significant expertise.

First, COEs provide like-minded Sponsoring Nations (SN) the ability to work on specific issues that would not be normally permitted within the NATO construct, either due to policy, time or fiscal constraints. Outcomes meet sponsoring nation needs because the program of work (POW) is requested by sponsoring nations, other Allied nations, and NATO entities. The POW is then approved by a steering committee and executed by COE personnel. This means the COE personnel are accountable to their center’s Sponsoring Nations for the work that they produce. The Sponsoring Nations are the sponsors who felt it was important to contribute reoccurring (annual) funds and full-time personnel to the COE.

Second, COEs provide opportunities for subject matter experts to meet together and consolidate talent into sort of a critical mass. The diversity of talent is significant across the Alliance, but highly distributed and usually not present at key Allied commands. The COE’s talent pool work unhindered in one command, which means personnel can use an interdisciplinary approach. The diversity of experience, field, and status allow for research and exploration of difficult concepts that traditional staffs just do not have the time for. COEs provide a unique opportunity to rigorously conceive, evaluate, and test concepts that have value in the future fight.

Lastly, and arguably the most import benefit is that COEs are unhindered by current NATO policy. This means COEs do not have to abide by NATO policy when performing their research and providing a final product. This ?academic freedom” is the only way to encourage out-of-the-box thinking so many times requested of an organization, but too often not delivered, through regular staffs. COEs are free to explore new or controversial topics and present resultant work to NATO leadership without fear.

Examples of Success

There are two COEs related to command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) and the United States is a Sponsoring Nation of both. These include the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence COE (NATO CCDCOE) and the NATO Command and Control COE (C2 COE).

The CCDCOE was accredited by NATO in 2008 and is formally supported by over half of the Alliance nations. The mission of the CCDCOE is “to enhance the capability, cooperation and information sharing among NATO, NATO nations and Partners in cyber defense by virtue of education, research and development, lessons learned and consultation.”

Figure 1 is a list of the different work areas that CCDCOE personnel perform within, clearly illustrating how well the work areas align with the mission of the center.

This mission is realized because of the center’s unique way of operating. The CCDCOE is comprised of Strategy, Law & Policy, Education & Exercises, Technical, and Support branches. Most importantly, branch or departmental breakdown are merely concepts for organization; yet, do not hinder cross-work in order to produce interdisciplinary products that bring value to the Alliance.

There are many success stories from the NATO CCDCOE, to include the Tallinn Manual, Responsive Cyber Defense, which was recently briefed to the Military Committee and North Atlantic Council, and Exercise Locked Shields. (For information regarding these successes, please visit https://ccdcoe.org/.) The NATO CCDCOE also supports many NATO exercises and offers many complex and challenging legal, operational, and technical courses.

At the center there is one U.S. supported position, the Chief of Strategy Branch, which rotates with the Netherlands. Via this position, the U.S. has significant influence in what the CCDCOE pursues in its annual program of work. In this role, the U.S. officer also performs duties as Senior National Representative (SNR) and, therefore, ensures U.S. interests are represented and met.

Second, there is the Command and Control Centre of Excellence (C2 COE). In June 2007, the C2 COE was officially established and subsequently received NATO accreditation on April 4, 2008. The C2 COE consists of nine sponsoring nations.

The mission of the C2 COE is to support NATO, other nations, and other international institutions by providing subject matter expertise on all aspects of the command and control process with a focus on the operational environment. The C2 COE is subdivided into four branches: Operational Assessment, Analysis and Concepts, Expertise Management and Support. The U.S. provides one official billet supporting the Analysis and Concepts Branch and an exchange officer who supports the Expertise Management Branch.

The C2 COE concentrates its efforts in the following areas to fulfill its mission: concept development and experimentation, analysis and lessons learned and doctrine development and standards. The C2 COE is an active contributor to NATO initiatives to include the Deployable HQ Concept for Joint Task Force (JTF), Maritime Security, Smart Defense, the Connected Forces Initiative (CFI), and Federated Mission Networking (FMN).

The C2 COE also supports events and working groups such as the Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXploration, eXperimentation, eXamination, eXercise (CWIX), Technology for Information, Decision and Execution Superiority (TIDE) Sprint, and the Concept Development and Experimentation (CD&E) Working Group. Expertise is also lent as C2 evaluators to support NATO organizations such as the Joint Warfare Center during the Trident exercise series.

Effective C2 is essential in all military operations at every level of command. This allows the C2 COE significant access to all NATO training, exercise and even some operations. The C2 COE’s assessment of the Afghan Mission Network in 2012 contributed to some of the principles that developed into the Federated Mission Networking concept. As a sponsoring nation, the U.S. has an advocate who understands its position on C2 and can influence discussions in an international environment.

United States Engagement with NATO COEs

Since COEs are not funded by all nations within NATO, they fall outside the direct authority of the United States military delegation to the NATO Military Committee. For this reason the NATO Agreements Branch, established within U.S. European Command’s (EUCOM) Manpower, Personnel and Administrative Directorate, has been delegated by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to manage U.S. participation in NATO COEs.

Through coordination with EUCOM’s International Law office, U.S. Army Europe’s NATO Resources Support Branch, the Joint Staff J5, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy (OSD-P), the NATO Agreements Branch works as the primary U.S. representative to these organizations, executing DoD “Lead Agent” functions. NATO Agreements Branch Lead Agent duties include attending COE steering committee meetings to provide U.S. approval of the COE’s annual program of work, approval of the annual budget, approval of changes in mission and structure, as well as approval of other policy and significant resource decisions regarding how U.S. support to the COE is being utilized.

COEs are financed solely by participating nations with oversight provided by a steering committee of Sponsoring Nations and chaired by a representative of the Framework Nation. The Framework Nation normally hosts the COE on its territory and contributes the highest level of infrastructure, financial and personnel support to the COE. The rules these organizations abide by is outlined in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that all parties agree to. The MOU outlines requirements and authorities for the Framework Nation, Sponsoring Nations, Contributing Partners and COE customers.

By assigning officers to the COEs and providing funding, the U.S. representative is able to exert influence on the program of work and budget despite a requirement to have all COE decisions be unanimous. To the maximum extent possible, the United States representative works with U.S. COE personnel, as well as any other DoD organizations involved to ensure the work of the COE is in line with U.S. European strategic guidance. The U.S. representative also ensures the COE is working to establish doctrine, lessons learned and training programs that help to continually transform NATO to meet the threats of the future while enabling a better trained, better standardized force to support current operations.

The U.S. Senior National Representative is the most visible representative of the United States commitment to the COE’s Framework Nation. In addition to working in a position as a member of the COE’s staff, the U.S. SNR works as a subject matter expert to help the COE and Framework Nation establish linkages to DoD offices and agencies that can better support the work of the COE.

Getting Full Value for the United States

The United States is a member of various COEs because it can influence policy and defense doctrine, as well as participate in exercises and lessons learned forums. However, there are more benefits that can be realized that are specific to the United States. These benefits come via two significant reasons: because of the Senior National Representative’s relationships at the COE, and because the U.S. can influence the program of work in a manner that reinforces theater shaping plans.

The United States has long believed that national partnerships are built upon a wide variety of personal relations and not just because of a signed piece of paper. At a NATO COE, the work is of higher quality because of these multinational relationships. The U.S. should encourage the Senior National Representative to establish and develop these relationships and not limit U.S. personnel with regard to potential avenues for research and development.

U.S. Center of Excellence personnel are not liaison officers (LNO) or Personnel Exchange Program (PEP) personnel, but something quite different. They are bona fide members of an international organization, affiliated with NATO, but not part of the force structure. They respond not only to U.S., but all sponsoring nations in an equal manner when performing COE work. In that regard, they are bound by existing international relationships and have the means to forge new ones. The U.S. can leverage these relationships in support of theater shaping plans.

Additionally, the United States can help guide NATO using these Centers of Excellence. The U.S. should submit program of work requests via the SNR that focus the work in a manner that supports the combatant commander’s theater objectives. If this is done, the United States has the ability to influence the opinions and future decisions of NATO in yet another manner.

Cmdr. Jason Kedzierski is currently the plankowner Chief of Strategy Branch and U.S. Senior National Representative at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (NATO CCDCOE) located in Tallinn, Estonia.