The North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO is an international alliance that is made up of 29 member states from North America and Europe. The organization was established during the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 th April 1949, hence its name. The main purpose for the formation of the organization and alliance at the point of its inception was to defend each member from the possibility and threat of being taken over by the communist Soviet Union.
Nonetheless, given the end of communism and the Soviet Union, the current mandate of NATO is to prevent the resurgence of aggressive nationalism, and as such, foster political union in the region. It is this mandate that gave birth to the European Union. As such, in fulfilling its endearing mandate as ascertained by NATO (2018), the alliance has to maintain military capabilities to prevent, deter, detect, as well as defend against any threat of aggression. In this regard, achieving this mandate requires NATO to conduct educational training not only to bolster cohesion but also readiness and effectiveness of its multinational forces. To this end, the paper aims at providing an articulated discourse regarding the changes taking place in NATO’ education and training, the factors driving the changes, the impact of the changes, the impact of information technology, as well as the importance of an effective leader during a time of transition. Also, personal opinions regarding NATO operations will be discussed as well as a conclusion that highlights the major upshots of the paper.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Key Changes and Effects on Practice
The most fundamental and key change to NATO’s education and training was in 2002 when the Allied Command Transformation (ACT) was established as a means of boosting the organization’s training and education (NATO, 2018). As such, ACT enabled the transformation of the NATO’s military structure, capabilities, forces, and doctrine. The transformation was made possible through training and exercise design as well as management. Moreover, through time, NATO has introduced new capabilities and concepts in its training and education exercises as a means of bolstering the alliance’s ability to respond to emergencies as well as security challenges. The changes have taken place under four aspects; education, individual and collective training, exercises, and evaluation of the exercises. In education, NATO intends to enhance individual skills and knowledge thereby developing competencies to confront a variety of challenges as a new mandate.
Under individual training, the organization focuses on the development of abilities fundamental to perform duties and tasks thus seeking response for predictable situations, a salient aspect achieved through collective training. Another critical change is the incorporation of technology in training exercises whereby the acquired knowledge and skills are tested through computer simulations or scenario-based live training. Besides, the organization is now integrated under a single command with differential bodies and organization with specific mandates regarding training and education. Also, partnerships have been fostered and bolstered to include countries outside the alliance such as the Middle East as a means of improving education and training. An additional change is the Connected Forces Initiative (CFI), which purposes to make greater use of training, education, and exercises to reinforce the correlation between the NATO forces of each member country as well as maintain a level of interoperability essential for future operations. Also, in 2014, NATO included inter alia, extensive training and exercising as a means of reinforcing training under Defense Planning; an inclusion that incorporated cyber defense as well (NATO, 2018).
A central change in recent years has been the development of performance measures to ascertain the success, effectiveness, and validity of training programs. One of the primary units of measurement is the ARTEP scores, which evaluate mission-oriented training and evaluation, multi-echelon training and evaluation, as well as decentralized training and evaluation (Turnage, Houser, & Hofmann, 1990). Other performance measures include Combined Arms Tactical Training Simulator, After Action Reviews, Simulation Networking, JESS, JANUS, and COLTSIM.
Factors Driving the Change
Regarding the performance measures, a fundamental factor driving this change is the need to evaluate the effectiveness of training, education, and exercises to improve efficiencies in deterrence and operations. Furthermore, the advent of technology such as the computers has driven the necessity and capability for simulations, which could be used as a performance measurement mechanism. As a result, the technology has driven performance measures such as CATTS, SIMNET, COLTSIM, as well as JESS among others. On the other hand, the need for interoperability between forces of the alliance has been a dominant driving force for the partnerships. In essence, this need has provided immense ability to consolidate partnerships from a wide array of partners including members outside the alliance, especially those in the Middle East.
According to NATO (2018), in 2014, Russia undertook an illegal annexation of Crimea, which resulted in NATO to commit efforts in enhancing capabilities through training and exercising as a defense Planning Package. By deducing this information, it is evident that the driving factor and force behind the change was an external threat, which in this came from Russia. Further ripple effects of the threat included the bolstering cyber defense as a major area of training and defense. An additional factor affecting change is the shift or transformation in education trends such as the development of Eduerati Leadership. This trend according to Allison (2009) connects the future with the present through the incorporation of a variety of academic disciplines. As such, military administrative leaders under this trend in contemporary society are thus able to come up with new training ideas and programs that are beneficial to the servicemen and the overall objectives of NATO.
How Information Technology is Impacting Change
Information technology is a technological competency that enables the use of computer systems and telecommunications for storing, retrieving, and sending information. In this case, information technology has been a major facet in driving the adoption of computer simulations as well as the subsequent performance measures. Through the simulations, members of the armed forces are exposed to different combat scenarios and their reaction to these scenarios based on their training, education, and exercises are recorded and modeled in measurement units such as the ARTEP scores. Furthermore, the advancement of information technology provides a platform for cyber-related operations; a precept that allowed NATO to undertake cyber defensive measures and training in 2014.
Changes in Educational
A significant change as ascribed by Allison (2009) is the development and advancement of the Eduerati Leadership as a trend in higher institutions. Indeed, the institutions are adopting this trend as a means of creating radically new systems that instruct and inspire leaders of change. Among the training and learning exercises undertaken by the Eduerati professors in these institutions include linking philosophy to practice, deviation to inspiration, career success to dynamic creativity, as well as international studies to learning advancement (Allison, 2009). Another change to the contemporary education system is the incorporation of technology. There is a massive flux of academic institutions taking to the internet; a phenomenon referred to as online-learning. In essence, the current educational system is being digitalized as a means of increasing flexibility in the educational system. By logging into the school website, the individual can obtain all the information pertaining to classes as well as literature and course material from the digitalized school library. Also, according to Dole, Bloom, & Kowalske (2016), a fundamental change in the educational system is the field training of educators and teachers as a means of effectively transforming their teaching techniques. As such, teaching pedagogies and classroom structures have substantially changed as a means of accommodating the students and improving their performance.
Mandates of an Effective Leader during Change
According to Allison (2009), Eduerati Leaders are the intellectually excited architects of the educational system. As such, when discussing how to improve or guide an organization effectively during the change, it is impossible to ignore Eduerati leadership. These leaders can affect positive change in the organization through their futuristic adoption of information and cyber systems. Moreover, based on their in-depth knowledge in their fields and commitment to improving it, Eduerati leaders lead their organizations through change by further organizing and teaching new systems.
Notably, effective leaders such as Eduerati leaders are emotionally connected to the results of their work. In this regard, they can lead the organization during change through honesty, transparency, passion, and confidence and are, therefore, able to successfully create new norms (Allison, 2009). According to (Murphy, 2016), leaders lead by empowering rather than controlling others. As such, effective leaders achieve this through dialogue, feedback, and cooperative approaches that demonstrate democratic leadership principles.
Personal Opinion
NATO’s mandate in deterring, preventing, and defending against outside threats or aggression is justified. Furthermore, by embracing different nations and further being willing to partner with those outside the alliance indicates the immense capability of the organization to accommodate cultural diversity. It also shows how a common objective, which is to prevent and deter threats can result in cohesion regardless of gender or race for the common good. However, there is the substantial risk that the organization can get entangled in wars, especially proxy wars being used as political arsenals by the individual states. However, with proper education and training including the military administrators, such precarious situations could be avoided.
Conclusion
NATO has a primary mandate in protecting its members from outside threats and aggression. The objective is achieved through education, training, and exercising. Besides, the organization has partnered with other nations to further and improve the training and education of its servicemen. This improves not only efficiency but also the interoperability between nation states for a common objective. The fundamental changes in the alliance and organization training have evolved over the years. However, in contemporary society, the biggest players and propagators of the change are new education trends such as Eduerati learning and technology. To this end, as much as the mandate of NATO and its importance cannot be ignored, there are substantial risks of the organization being deleteriously used politically, which the organization should be aware of.
References
Allison, B. (2009). Creating the Eduerati: Professorial Leadership to Create K-12 Educational System Change. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation , 4 (2), n2.
Dole, S., Bloom, L., & Kowalske, K. (2016). Transforming pedagogy: Changing perspectives from teacher-centered to learner-centered. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning , 10 (1), 1. https://doi.org/10.7771/1541-5015.1538
Murphy, J. (2016). Forces shaping schooling and school leadership. Journal of School Leadership , 25 (6), 1064. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305700511
NATO. (2018). Education and training. retrieved from https://www.nato.int/cps/ic/natohq/topics_49206.htm
Turnage, J. T., Houser, T. L., & Hofmann, D. A. (1990). Assessment of performance measurement methodologies for collective military training . University of Central Florida Orlando. https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a227971.pdf
