How Western Balkan Countries can Develop Multinational Military Training and Education Capabilities With an Affordable Cost
Abstract
Finding an appropriate model to develop multinational military training and education capabilities with an affordable cost in Western Balkan Countries (WBC) is a significant challenge considering its specific recent history, geo-strategic position, and financial, as well as political limitations imposed on developing their armed forces. Principles of Smart Defense promoted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the development of cooperation in training and the educational domain of Baltic States, - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - could prove a useful model for development of the training domain in Balkan countries Albania (AL), Bosna and Hercegovina (BH), Croatia (CRO), North Macedonia (NM), Montenegro (MN) and Kosovo (KV). This research focuses on the development of a Multinational Military Training and Education domain for Western Balkan countries with limited resources, which could apply the principles of Smart Defense in order to develop multinational military training and education with less cost. Moreover, the Baltic example will provide a useful model to WBC in order to successfully improve their own training capabilities. The purpose of this research is to examine the principles of the NATO smart defense concept and the experience of Baltic States, the challenges Baltic States faced while developing their training capabilities, and how the Balkans can learn from their experience to utilize the best practices and disregard the shortcomings in order to successfully and efficiently develop capabilities of a small modern armed force. Considering the amount of assistance from NATO, Balkan Countries will have the best professional expertise and support offered on developing their training and educational capabilities. The current approach of cooperation between these countries is very slow. Nonetheless, there are bilateral initiatives for cooperation between these countries in order to increase their readiness to act in any situation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 12, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1158567
Entities
People
- Albert Kuci
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College