When I applied for the position of Head of the European Security and Defence College in September 2014, I decided to search for a balance between continuity with what my predecessor, former boss and good friend, Hans-Bernhard Weisserth, had built up since 2005 on one side, and innovation, expansion, and increased outreach and visibility on the other side. To make this happen, two things were key to ensure continued buy-in from our stakeholders. First of all, a well-balanced and functional internal control system needed to be put in place to ensure full compliance with the highest budgetary standards and transparency of the financial workflow, without exaggerating the bureaucratic footprint. Secondly, we needed to ensure added value for the Member States and EU institutions by focusing on training the right subjects for those who needed it most, both on the civilian and on the military side, in the Member States, the EU institutions, and selected third countries.
This allowed the ESDC to secure a significant increase in budget and staff during my tenure. At the same time, the Member States and the European External Action Service increasingly looked to the ESDC to provide an ever-expanding portfolio of training activities. To name just a few of those activities that were entrusted to the College in that period: a just-in-time and just-as-needed pre-deployment training aimed primarily, though not exclusively, at civilian seconded staff for CSDP missions and operations, developed in close coordination with CPCC and in sync with their recruitment process; cyber security and defence training to complement earlier action undertaken by the European Defence Agency and the relevant Commission services; the development of a full sectoral qualification framework for military officers, developed at the request of the Chairman of the EU Military Committee, creating a lexicon that allows comparison of military training and education outcomes throughout the Member States. However, this is only a very limited list of the different developments that took place between 2015 and 2022. My apologies for the innumerable and equally valuable activities that I did not mention here.
Despite the increase in staff, the ESDC had, and still has, an extremely small permanent team working to manage an ever-increasing workload. We were therefore continually pushed to cooperate, automate, and innovate wherever and whenever possible. Luckily, the existing training institutes in the ESDC network not only stepped up their engagement, they were also joined by numerous new training providers. At the same time, this required a highly qualified and motivated staff at the Secretariat, again provided mostly by the same training institutes. Without the support of these institutes and individuals, in whom I needed to place complete trust, we could never have achieved what we have. As often, the ESDC’s inherent limitations proved to be a strength. The lack of permanent teaching staff forced us to develop a robust e-learning system, running on a dedicated platform. This in turn allowed us to switch very quickly to fully online, and later hybrid, training during the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when many other training activities were suspended.
Another important aspect that developed significantly was the ESDC’s outreach to countries outside the EU. From the near abroad in Eastern Europe and in the Western Balkans, to the People’s Republic of China, from the UN Headquarters in New York to the Headquarters of ASEAN in Indonesia, the ESDC served as an instrument of the EEAS’s diplomatic action.
For me, the most important signs that all the work done by the complete ESDC team was appreciated even outside the limits of the EU were, firstly, that on the civilian side, we became a member of the European Association of Peace Training Centres and were entrusted with the organisation of its annual meeting. On the military side, the Head of the ESDC on a functional basis became a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the NATO Defense College, an honour that is normally bestowed on renowned academics on an ad personam basis.