CIED Strategy Development Seminar
The NATO C-IED COE participated in the United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM) Pilot Counter-IED Strategy Development Seminar at the Humanitarian Peace Support School (HPSS) in Nairobi, Kenya from 2-4 April 2019. The 20 student participants were senior military officers (Lt. Col / Colonel) and Civilians from Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, Cameroon, Malawi, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Rwanda, and Sudan. The objectives of the seminar were to: Provide a broad and holistic understanding of the C-IED mission; Explore the principles of strategic thinking within the C-IED enterprise; Outline strategy development from an organizational, national, and regional perspective; and provide students with an introduction to the tools, mechanisms, and processes to participate in the strategy development process. The seminar was delivered by diverse international experts from military, police, security, and academia. The team of experts facilitated new ways of thinking in order to broaden perspectives, provided technical information, and advice to organizations, nations, and regional participants on a C-IED strategy. The presentations covered: Key Drivers of Violent Extremism; Drivers of Conflict; Transnational Threats and Information Sharing; Strategic Threat Brief; Strategic, Operational, and Tactical Lines of Effort; Doctrine Overview; Translating Strategy into Action; and the African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA) overview. The pilot seminar concluded with students participating in three small group exercises on identifying the Ends, Ways, and Means in a national strategy. Students explained examples of a strategy with regards to the Threat, Strategic Objectives, Operational Programs and Plans along with identifying C-IED solutions that would be applied through specific deliverables and outputs within a C-IED strategy. The students gained a better understanding of the strategic and operational impacts and planning for C-IED operations and activities, and their thinking began to move further away from Defeat the Device to a more whole of government approach.