I just completed an excellent visit to Canada, our neighbor and NATO partner just north of the United States.  As every U.S. citizens learns in elementary school, we sit side-by-side along the longest undefended border in the world, completely at peace with good friends who live in a land of remarkable beauty and culture.

Every time I go to Canada, I am struck by the bilingual / bicultural nature of that nation of 33 million.  With a population that has both strong French (30%) and English (60%) linguistic roots, they carefully balance the language, education, government work, and laws to ensure that both languages and cultures are nurtured and protected.  In the Canadian military, for example, the more senior an individual becomes the greater requirement for facility in both French and English.  Living as I do now in the similarly bilingual country of Belgium (French and Flemish, principally), I know this is challenging but important.
more…

Lt Gen Richard Shirreff CBE - Commander Allied Rapid Reaction Corps

So ends the ARRC’s annual exercise – ARRCADE FUSION 09 (link to web page): ambitious, ground breaking and designed to test HQ ARRC’s ability to integrate planning and execution with key non-military players in a complex and demanding scenario in order to achieve unity of purpose and effort in hybrid conflict. The hard work of drawing out all the lessons and implementing them started with the After Action Review and there remains much to be done to ensure that we extract every ounce of value. However, from my perspective, I can say conclusively that the experimental restructuring of HQ ARRC has been a resounding success. The exercise highlighted many areas we need to get right and there were inevitable shortcomings which we need to work on. Nevertheless, thanks to the efforts of all who contributed to the exercise, both from within and without HQ ARRC and both civilian and military from across NATO, I really think we might be on the edge of something revolutionary in terms of command and control.

       more…

One of you recently asked me on EUCOM Blog two incredibly important questions:  what am I doing to get more NATO countries into the fight in Afghanistan, and what am I doing to engage Russia?

First, let us clearly understand that EVERY nation in NATO is “in the fight” in Afghanistan.  This is a committed alliance.

Second, as the Secretary General has said, “This Alliance is about sharing security, but that doesn’t just mean sharing the benefits. It also means sharing the costs and the risks.”  The nations that comprise NATO of course need to make their own determinations as to what contributions they make to NATO operations in Afghanistan.  My job is to provide them, through NATO leadership in Brussels, with timely, accurate information about the operational environment so that they can make well-informed decisions.  I spend a lot of time in dialogue with Brussels and nations to ensure that they have the latest information on the current environment, the progress we’ve made, and the challenges that remain. 

Third, I try to make the case everywhere I go that we are a team that is “stronger together,” and that no one of us — no one nation — is as capable as all of us pulling together.  There is a real synergy in all of us pulling together and the sum truly is greater than the simple addition of the parts in Afghanistan. more…