any military commitment , staff officers will have to deal with an extraordinary bureaucracy for permission to cross borders . Thus before embarking on a one-week terrain analysis in late 2018 we need to develop situational understanding . Planners must address issues within the Schengen zone including people , money , and goods that do not apply to military and NATO . Twenty-two of the 28 European Union states , plus four other European governments agreed to forgo border formalities , while simultaneously gaining a deeper appreciation of geography . With the Alliance ’ s long history and long border with Russia , NATO planners can dig into their extensive materials to frame the problem and to refine the former NATO Plan to develop new ideas .
In order to cope with a peer enemy ’ s effort to use all tools at its disposal to wreak political , social , and cultural havoc on its neighboring NATO countries or partner nations ( such as Finland , Sweden , Ukraine , Moldova ), the high level training objective of the week is to understand an evolving and complex operational context through a terrain walk backed with a LANDCOM cross-staff working group :
-Terrain walk : For LANDCOM HQ this is the first genuine ‘ tour ’ to attempt a multidisciplinary approach to understand how the living realities of the ground , human terrain , and weather could affect the outcome-based thinking for the planners .
-Cross-Staff : This is for the planning team to encourage a cooperative and collaborative working group where the participants bring and share distinct military cultures , divisional insights , differences , values , and perceptions . Cross-staff activities will foster teambuilding and allow for the development of trust , personal contact , and knowledge sharing , to help facilitate and bolster planning .
The leading challenge of this innovative week is to shape a proper methodology that helps planners to better understand how to analyze and frame the problem .
A proper methodology
In practice the leading challenge of this innovative week is to shape a proper methodology that helps planners to better understand how to analyze and frame the problem . The methodological framework is divided into four analytical levels that need to be applied in four different countries .
-The comprehensive context : What is the current situation in each country ? -Geography : An " eyes on " canvas for the planners . -History of war : Have two centuries of war in the area shaped the ways of warfare ? -The conduct of war : What are the questions to be developed all along the terrain walk ?
Diagram 1- Dynamic methodology
PICTURE
Staff ride Napoleon Campaigning in Russia-1812-Napoleon Hill , Kaunas , Lituanie 8 Feb 2018
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