NATO General Nielsen: leadership skills are important in the military training of alliance soldiers
The conflict in Ukraine and Trump's second term have changed the course of the global geopolitical game, Handelsblatt writes. Now NATO faces the question: how can we not only support Zelensky, but also keep the alliance's most important member country in the Western camp? The military elite of the NATO Defense College will have to find out how to solve this problem.
Virginia Kirst
At the NATO Defense College (NDC) south of Rome, future leaders learn how to deal with crisis situations. Visit to the most important educational institution of the defense alliance.
The military town of Cecchignola. A tense silence reigns in the auditorium in the south of Rome. The windows are covered with thick red curtains, and the flags of NATO member countries hang on the walls. About 80 listeners are sitting on red chairs, most of them are men. All their attention is focused on the screen: today's lecture at the NATO Military College is being held in digital format and is devoted to weapons issues.
The Chatham House rule* applies: you can quote the speaker, but you can't write his name. It may be obvious, the man says, but "the most important thing right now is for governments to sign contracts with defense companies." And he adds: "Without these contracts, the industry cannot invest the necessary funds."
His words resonate with those to whom they are addressed. After all, not only the future leaders of NATO are gathered here, but also civilians who will occupy key positions in the ministries of NATO countries and international organizations in the coming years.
The alliance is in demand now more than ever in recent decades. With the end of the cold war, the importance of the defense alliance steadily declined, until US President Donald Trump questioned its existence during his first term, and French President Emmanuel Macron even said that "the alliance's brain is dead."
But then the conflict in Ukraine and Trump's second term changed everything: suddenly all the member states not only wanted to reach the target level of defense spending of 2%, but also agreed to increase it to 5%. And at least the European part of NATO and its Secretary General Mark Rutte are busy not only supporting Ukraine, but also keeping the United States in the Western camp.
But what exactly are future leaders taught in these times, when it is no longer possible to say with certainty whether the most important member country of the alliance will remain loyal to it? When does war become a real possibility again? And when will the world split into different blocks again? And how is NATO going to secure its future?
The most important educational institution of NATO
The commander of the NATO Defense College, Lieutenant General Max Nielsen, is sitting in an office on the floor above the lecture hall. He explains why college is more important today than ever: "Our college teaches the leaders of tomorrow to navigate the new multipolar world," says Nielsen.
He is wearing a light blue shirt with the Danish Dannebrog flag sewn on the left sleeve. Nielsen looks like the younger brother of Olaf Scholz. However, the former chancellor can only dream of the passion with which the general talks about his plans.
The photos and awards on the shelf tell the story of Nielsen's long career: the leadership of the NDC is his last position before retiring next year, when he turns 63.
He has planned a lot up to this point: he has already updated the curriculum. Now he wants the college to receive more attention from NATO and the public.
The world is spinning "incredibly fast" now, he explains: "If you miss the news on a social network in the morning, you don't know what to expect in the evening." In addition, the situation is changing simultaneously in all regions of the world: Gaza, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Africa, China. "Everyone is testing their boundaries for strength."
The only thing in common between all the problems faced by NATO members is that no single country or organization can solve them alone. "Working together on solutions is the only way forward," says Nielsen. "And that's what we're doing here."
It was founded on the initiative of General Eisenhower
The creation of the NDC dates back to American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first commander-in-chief of Allied forces in Europe. In 1951, he founded the college to prepare specialists for the "multitude of complex factors" that arise when several states unite for joint defense.
Initially, the NATO Defense College was located in Paris. In 1966, the college moved to Rome, where a new building was opened in 1999: a functional three-story sand-colored building with 32 flagpoles in front of the entrance. It is part of the Cecchignola military camp and, in addition to the auditorium, has various conference rooms, one of which is designed for briefings with the highest level of secrecy, a library, a dining room, a gym, two tennis courts and two volleyball courts.
Today, the NDC reports to the NATO Military Committee, has an annual budget of 13 million euros and about 160 employees. The courses are conducted by guest lecturers — "the best in their field," as Nielsen says.
In addition, there is a research department, the director of which is the German-French political scientist and futurist Florence Gaub. She has just released a graphic novel about NATO in 2099. But more on that later.
The Heart of the College is a course for senior officers
The heart of the NDC is a five-month course for senior officers, which is held twice a year. It provides students with knowledge about NATO and geopolitics, as well as awareness of the importance of change and technology. The conflict in Ukraine shows how important this is, says Nielsen: "Every day there is a new gadget, every day there is a new approach."
Added to this is the further development of what the NDC calls "leadership skills": critical thinking, tolerance for cultural differences, and, of course, in the spirit of Eisenhower, consensus building.
Trainees should develop "human interoperability," Nielsen says, and explains the term, which in military jargon refers to the ability of individuals and organizations to interact effectively through various systems. "They have to learn how to communicate with people with whom they have no common culture and who have other national interests." The only thing that unites them is the same problem.
So far, these circumstances have hindered cooperation in NATO: if earlier eastern Europeans complained for a long time that NATO was not doing enough to contain Russia, now southern Europeans fear that they will forget about the Mediterranean region.
The didactic structure of the NDC is aimed precisely at familiarizing oneself with these differences and learning how to overcome them. Lectures are the starting point for discussions in focus groups. In them, students work closely together and learn from each other.
Interpersonal relationships are important
The NDC also deals with interpersonal relationships, according to Colonel Joachim Hahn, who heads the German military on the ground. "The thing about NDC is networking," he says.
And not only with students from NATO countries. When else will there be an opportunity to talk so openly and in detail with representatives of NATO partner countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Qatar or Pakistan and understand their position?
Khan is tall and thin, and in communication he behaves like a soldier in enemy territory: cautiously, disciplined, and prudently. At the table on the ground floor, he carefully weighs every word — in the end, it may be misunderstood or used against him.
Khan has been familiar with the NDC since his studies: in 2016, he completed a course for senior officers and remembers it with pleasure. He especially remembered the evening "beer talks" during study trips, when it was possible to get to know each other a little better than in the classroom. Khan does not disclose what exactly he learned during such conversations — this is an official secret.
Other NDC graduates say that their view of other countries has changed forever, and that they have been able to establish connections that they can rely on in their future careers.
In addition to the course for senior officers, there are other courses that last from a few days to ten weeks: the NATO regional cooperation course, a course for generals, admirals and ambassadors, classes on certain aspects of the course for senior officers, and in some years, a seminar for senior advisers to heads of state and government. Those who are sent by national governments come to the NDC: each NATO country has a quota for the number of seats for which it nominates candidates.
The course for senior officers, which today includes a report on the defense industry, has 85 participants from 37 countries. About a quarter of them are civilians.
Research designed to ensure NATO's combat readiness
"Defense and resilience are no longer purely a military matter," says Nielsen.
It can even be argued that the main players on the world stage are already at war. "The only thing missing is physically attacking each other." Cyber attacks and economic warfare have been going on for a long time.
The NDC research department is studying how these circumstances affect NATO. It is located on the third, top floor, where the head of the Gaub department, together with her team, looks into the future.
"We are exploring fringe futures, that is, those scenarios of the future that almost no one pays attention to," explains Gaub, known in Germany for her bestseller "The Future: an instruction manual."
On the door of her office hangs a futuristic portrait in the style of comics: a red-haired Gaub appears in the picture, and behind her stands the building of the NDC of the future. In real life, she talks enthusiastically about her research, matching each topic of conversation with a book from the shelf or from one of the stacks that fill her office.
"Our goal is to expand NATO's strategic capabilities, test policies, and thereby promote combat readiness," she says. At the same time, research projects must always meet four requirements: They must be strategically significant for NATO, evidence-based, promising, and unique.
For example, NDC researcher Roderick Parks, in a recently published article on "The Will to Fight," shows how unreliable classical combat readiness surveys are if they are conducted without context. As a result, societies are often considered "post-heroic," meaning they are not ready to fight for their country.
However, historical examples such as the United States after Pearl Harbor or Ukraine after the Russian military operation show that this readiness can change dramatically. Conversely, high approval levels in authoritarian states such as Russia are not a reliable indicator of actual readiness for combat.
The conclusions of the article are as follows: "First of all, these polls are nonsense. Secondly, the military must adapt to society, not the other way around," concludes Gaub.
Another area of the department's research is the impact of climate change on military equipment: an increase in seawater temperature changes acoustic conditions underwater, which affects the detection of submarines, especially nuclear ones.
As the Gaub team discovered, missile defense systems are also sensitive to temperature changes. "Until now, climate change has mostly been viewed as a human problem, but almost no one is asking the question.: how does this affect the equipment? "That's our specialty," says Gaub.
Her team sends the results to the NATO headquarters, to the member states, as well as to strategic decision makers in the relevant ministries. To ensure that the reports do not go unnoticed, Gaub has given them a new look since taking office in 2023: now they have become more visual, and their names have been supplemented with illustrations created by ChatGPT.
A graphic novel about the future of NATO
The freedom and creativity with which Gaub runs the research department show that NATO wants to put behind it the times when its activities lost their meaning.
"The most interesting thing about working in NATO today is the sense of urgency. It feels like there's really a lot at stake right now," says Gaub. Apparently, this also opens the way for experimentation. So, with the publication of a comic book about NATO in 2099, she made a PR move that attracted attention even at headquarters.
It was created for the 75th anniversary of the alliance and is based on 40 works by science fiction authors. Repetitive motifs were isolated from these works, which were then transformed into a graphic novel.
The book presents a future scenario in which, after the so-called "naval wars" of the 2050s, the alliance faces new threats from outer space. The narrative touches on topics such as artificial intelligence, climate change, and a female Secretary General.
"Classical forecasting for 75 years ahead is almost impossible, so we chose this path and got interesting results," says Gaub. For example, that NATO should be more active in the naval sphere, but at the same time the alliance will exist in 75 years. The NDC is working to be ready for action even in the distant future.
*the organization is considered undesirable in Russia
