Annual Field Trip

Fieldtrips are designed to provide PSSI Scholars with a unique opportunity to hear from topic-relevant speakers at attractive locations such as NATO Headquarters and the EU Institutions. In the past years, fieldtrips were arranged to NATO HQ, the Czech Mission to the European Union, the European Policy Center and the Parliament of the European Union.

While on the fieldtrip, the students take part in security-related workshops and meetings. Last year's field trip was made possible by the generous help and support from the NATO Public Diplomacy Division and the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.

The RMSSP 2006 Field Trip to Brussels, already a traditional event organized by PSSI for its scholars, once again completely satisfied the expectations of the scholars and hopefully fulfilled the original aim of the organizers to provide the scholars with a better knowledge of the work of the main international organizations seated in Brussels in a more interesting and friendlier way. Beside this objective, the field trip intensified the interest of the scholars in the security studies.

The first day of the trip was focused on the main activities of the European Union. The first lecture about the Energy security in the transatlantic perspective was headed by Mr. John Duffield, the Transatlantic Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.  All the scholars appreciated his well-prepared and well-structured lecture about one of the most serious problems in these days – the oil dependence of the “problematic” states and possible ways of its elimination.

The second lecture of the day was the biggest disappointment for all the scholars. But it was not the fault of Friderike Tschampa from the DG External relations, Council of the European Union. Her lecture about the EU – China Human Right Dialogue was very interesting. Ms Tschampa was real sincere and was openly talking about the obstacles she has to deal with. The conclusion of her lecture that could be summed up as a description of the EU as a dog that can bark but cannot bite and ineffective bureaucracy was a bit of disappointment after listening to all those nice talks about how powerful the EU is. On the other hand Ms Tschampa¢s attitude towards these obstacles together with her willingness not to give up made us somehow believe that one day the EU could play a bigger role in the international relations.

Late on the scholar have an informal lunch with Ms Tschampa and Ms Petra Pilzner, a German journalist covering the EU affaires. The discussion about her job in Brussels ended up in the discussion of how the old and the new Member States and their citizens view the enlarging of the EU and the possible ways of overcoming the current negative tendencies in the integration process.  The informality of the whole discussion made it easier for both sides to openly express their points of view.

The lecture of Mr. Antonio Missiroli, Chief Policy Analyst of the European Policy Centre presented his or better said official statements towards the current EU Foreign and Security Policy. He analyzed the effects of the last enlargement on the performance of the EU Foreign and Security Policy and its impact on the NATO perspective. An interesting part of his lecture was the one where he discussed the main principles of the EU Foreign Policy in respective of the UN Charter.

Last but definitely not least there was a discussion with Mr. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the Member of the European Parliament and the Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affaires of the EP. His lecture on EU External Relations was really great. Mr. Ilves has a gift to present all the facts in such a sarcastic and realistic way, that his lecture gave the energy to already tired scholars. His view of the facts is really close to ours, as he is from a small country occupied for a long time by Soviet troops.  He also pointed out at the different view of the Russian Federation and possible threats to democracy by the old and the new Member States.

The second day of the field trip was dedicated to the NATO; in whose headquarter all the lectures took place. The introductory briefing was lead by Dr. Petr Luňák, the Senior Program Coordinator for CEE Countries. The lecture discussed the role of the NATO in the past 60 years and the changing incentives for its existence. The mail focus was put on the “raison d¢être” of the NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the possible function of the NATO and in the new world order. Wirth of attention was also a discussion led about the new objectives of the organization that emerged after 9/11. 

Mr. Jan Michal, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic on the North Atlantic Council then continued with the lecture. The most interesting topics mentioned were the perspectives of the Summit in Riga, the possible enlargement of the NATO and the cooperation with the EU in the form of Berlin + and the strategic partnership with Russia.

MajGen. Rostislav Mazurek's briefing on The Czech Army in NATO, the military representative of the Czech Republic to NATO explained to scholars the decision-making process in the NATO. His lecture tested our intelligence as he used all the abbreviations he could think of all those things were completely new to all of us.

These three lectures were followed by a lunch hosted by the Public Diplomacy Division in the NATO Restaurant. This lunch represented a perfect opportunity for the scholars to discuss the topics they were interested in with the leading representatives of the Czech Republic to NATO in an informal way. The scholars took advantage of it and fully used all the time reserved for the topics that they wanted to know more about.

The Program Coordinator, Outreach Countries Sector Megan Minnion briefing on the Current issues turned to be a discussion aimed on receiving tips on how to get a job in NATO. Her attitude towards scholars was perfect.

Mr. Daniel Riggio, the Regional Information Officer, devoted his lecture to a presentation of all the NATO¢s missions and operations that were performed in the last decade up to the current ones. Very interesting was his contribution about the hottest theme today, e.g. about the mission in Darfur.

Radoslava Stefanova, a NATO specialist on Russia and Ukraine, explained the changes that the EU-Russia strategic partnership has overcome in the last couple of years. Her presentation of the Russian attitude towards the war in Kosovo contained a lot of unknown information.

The Senior Defence Economist Mr. Adrian Kendry ended up the field trip with the same topic as was used by Mr. John Duffiel in the first lecture.  The lecture On the Economic Aspects of Energy Security perfectly summed up all the important facts the scholars should learn and let the scholars with a lot of interesting thinks to think about on the long way home.