The Centre for European Perspective will implement a three-day training on Digital Communications in Civilian Crisis Management as a part of the European Union Civilian Training Initiative (EUCTI), which provides tailor-made training activities for individuals working in the EU’s CSDP and other international missions (OSCE, UN, AU and others). The training is designed to increase the awareness of mission communication experts on the efficient use of information technology to enhance missions’ communication performance.
To effectively communicate in a strategic manner, solely acquiring technological hardware and software is not enough. Missions need to recalibrate their communication efforts and address the question of “why to communicate” in greater detail, develop communication strategies based on their findings and make necessary organisational shifts, which ultimately lead to increased support of the domestic and foreign public towards the mission. Thus, the course aims to strengthen the overall performance of missions’ communication efforts, which enhance the mission’s legitimacy.
The upcoming training addresses the needs of EUMM Georgia with participation extended to experts serving in other international missions and organisations in Georgia. Due to Covid-19 related restrictions, the course has been designed in a two-module structure. The upcoming training, which will be held online between 16th and 18th November 2021 represents the first training module and will provide the participants with fundamental theoretical knowledge. The procured knowledge will provide participants with the basis to successfully participate in the training’s second module, which is more practically oriented.
[Webinar]: Radicalization and Violent Extremism Across Borders: An Ongoing Threat
The persistent threat of radicalization and violent extremism is highlighting the vulnerability of our societies today to the challenges of intolerance, hatred and fear. Radicalization is a reflection of societal polarization, as well as a reflection of deep and rapid changes of perceptions, values and behaviour, where violence is becoming an acceptable tool for solving conflicts.
The Euro-Atlantic Council of Slovenia, the Politics and Society Institute in Jordan and the Centre for European Perspective in Slovenia have joined together in order to open up a discussion on the threat of radicalization and violent extremism in Slovenia, Kosovo and Jordan and their wider regions.
The experts aimed to:
• Underline potential similarities, differences and connections between violent extremism in these countries and their respective regions;
• Address how to reduce the risk of individual indoctrination to violent extremism and radicalization; and
• Proposed ideas on how to deal with these challenges.
Missed our event? Watch it here:
SPEAKERS 🗣️:
◾ Dr Mohammad Abu Rumman, Politics and Society Institute, Associate Expert and Writer on Political Islam and Violent Extremism
◾ Dr Florian Qehaja, Kosovar Center for Security Studies, Chair of the Board
◾ Dr Iztok Prezelj, Euro-Atlantic Council of Slovenia, President & Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Vice-Dean
🔹 Moderated by Katja Geršak, Centre for European Perspective, Executive Director
For more about the event, follow CEP on Facebook and Twitter, you are also invited to follow the Euro-Atlantic Council of Slovenia on Facebook and the Politics and Society Institute on Facebook and Twitter.
The Euro-Atlantic Council of Slovenia, the Politics and Society Institute in Jordan and the Centre for European Perspective in Slovenia are jointly organizing a webinar titled:
Radicalization and Violent Extremism Across Borders: An Ongoing Threat
The persistent threat of radicalization and violent extremism is highlighting the vulnerability of our societies today to the challenges of intolerance, hatred and fear. Radicalization is a reflection of societal polarization, as well as a reflection of deep and rapid changes of perceptions, values and behaviour, where violence is becoming an acceptable tool for solving conflicts.
How is this phenomenon going to impact our society?
Join our panel of experts in a webinar to:
Discuss the threat of radicalization and violent extremism in Slovenia, Kosovo and Jordan and their wider regions;
Underline potential similarities, differences and connections between violent extremism in these countries and their respective regions;
Address how to reduce the risk of individual indoctrination to violent extremism and radicalization; and
Propose ideas on how to deal with these challenges.
Speakers:
Dr Mohammad Abu Rumman, Politics and Society Institute, Associate Expert and Writer on Political Islam and Violent Extremism
Dr Florian Qehaja, Kosovar Center for Security Studies, Chair of the Board
Dr Iztok Prezelj, Euro-Atlantic Council of Slovenia, President & Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Vice-Dean
Moderator: Katja Geršak, Centre for European Perspective, Executive Director
For more about the event, follow CEP on Facebook and Twitter, you are also invited to follow the Euro-Atlantic Council of Slovenia on Facebook and the Politics and Society Institute on Facebook and Twitter.
The activities of the new EU funded project coordinated by CEP have begun at the beginning of the year. The Secretariat of the project, the European Union’s Civilian Training Initiative (EUCTI), is located at CEP.
The overall objective of the EUCTI is to improve the EU position as a peace actor.
EUCTI aims to improve the life of people living in the conflict-affected societies by enhancing the quality of training provided to individuals joining the crisis management missions – either civilian crisis management missions or missions consisting of civilian, police and military elements (integrated missions).
As a part of ENTRi, CEP delivered a variety of training activities including Training of Trainers, Monitoring, Mentoring and Advising, Pre-deployment Training for various missions, Hostile Environment Awareness as well as mission administration and support-training. Moreover, CEP lead and contributed to several working groups developing standards on evaluation, online learning tools and packages of training materials that were made accessible for everyone interested. Furthermore, CEP was active in several other projects related to the civilian crisis management such as Improving the Effectiveness of Capabilities in EU Conflict Prevention (IECEU) and Law Enforcement Training for Capacity Building (LET4CAP) just to name few. Based on its experience and engagement, CEP was recognized by its international counterparts as capable and suitable for hosting the secretariat with four people for the new multi-annual EUCTI project.
EUCTI consortium consists of eight renowned training institutions with sound knowledge and expertise in designing and delivering civilian crisis management training. Apart from Slovenia, the other consortium members are located in the following EU member states: Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden.
In practical terms, EUCTI will organize tailor-made training activities for individuals working in the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) -and other international missions, support third countries in their endeavours to develop efficient training materials and activities, design new course curriculums based on the needs of the missions, work on standardization of the training activities offered and develop new methodologies that will maximize the outcomes of the learning processes.
Further information about the project can be found hereand more will be made available soon on new EUCTI web site – stay tuned!
Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a major global crisis. Consequently, it has led to a number of restrictive measures in an effort to tackle the virus and accordingly, it affected international missions and operations worldwide.
This brought about a number of unprecedented challenges in the field of military mobility.
The Military Mobility Workshop, which took place in a virtual manner on 10th of December 2020, was kicked off by a welcome address and introductory remarks by Mr Valter Vrečar, M.Sc, Acting Director-General of the Defence Affairs Directorate, Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia and Colonel Anže Rode, Deputy Chief of Staff for Support, Slovenian Armed Forces. They both emphasized the importance of cooperation and coordination, also through workshops like this.
In the morning session, representatives of eight countries held presentations on experiences, lessons learned, legal limitations and possible improvements of an existing international framework. In the afternoon session participants were put in two syndicate groups in which specific topics built around military mobility in case of COVID-19 were discussed. On the basis of the outcomes, a set of recommendations were drafted, finalized and shared by the Republic of Slovenia that is currently presiding the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC).
The workshop was used as a platform for an exchange of lessons learned, views and ideas on improving military mobility in a situation of the evacuation of military and civilian personnel from missions and operations in the event of a COVID-19 infection. Its aim was to better address shortfalls and gaps of national and international policies, procedures and practices in the field of the military mobility with particular focus on national operational aspects and decision-making processes referring to legal, administrative and procedural constraints.
The workshop was co-organized by Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia and the Centre for European Perspective in the framework of the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC).
This year marks the 20th anniversary of adopting the historic UN Security Council Resolution on Women, Peace and Security (1325), and the 25th anniversary of adopting the Beijing Declaration on Gender Equality. These two documents, together with other UN Security Council resolutions, form the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda.
Commemorating both achievements, the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia together with the Slovenian Peacekeeping Operations Training Centre (POTC) organized a virtual international conference “Women, Peace and Security” in the format of the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC) Initiative with the additional participation of representatives from the Western Balkan countries and Luxembourg on 26 November 2020.
The introductory speech was given by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, Mr. Uroš Lampret, and Ms. Katja Geršak, CEP/POTC Executive Director. Ms. Christine Löw, director of the UN Women Liaison Office Geneva, as the keynote speaker reflected on the milestones and setbacks in the past years. She emphasized the importance of women’s equal and meaningful participation in peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding. The UN needs to aim towards making women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation a requirement in all mediation teams, political transitions, and the peace processes it leads or co-leads.
According to the reports of the countries, significant progress has been made in on gender mainstreaming in the area of peace and security, which is the result of raising public awareness of women’s equal participation, gender mainstreaming in various policies, increasing women’s involvement in international operations and missions, and preventing sexual violence against women and girls. The constant growth of the percentage of females serving in the national defense forces and their increased participation in international missions and operations has been highlighted throughout the conference. Today women perform a wide range of duties in the armed forces from leadership and command duties through staff duties to various specialist duties. It is important to raise public awareness, that military does not belong exclusively to men and that performance of female soldiers is as professional as one of their male colleagues. Throughout these years countries integrated the WPS Agenda into various lectures within their military education and training systems. Nowadays, we can expect women’s rights to be a part of military school curriculums, pre-deployment courses, and other specialized courses. In connection with the increased educational activities in that field, the need for translation of relevant gender perspective materials into countries’ native languages, has also increased in the past years.
The conference was a great opportunity to analyze, revise, and reflect on the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and the activities accomplished in that field over the past years. A collection of introductory speeches, contributions of participants, and conclusions of the conference will be published in a form of a compendium in the next weeks.
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