Implications of Climate Change and Disasters on Military Activities: Building Resiliency and Mitigating Vulnerability in the Balkan Region

Implications of Climate Change and Disasters on Military Activities: Building Resiliency and Mitigating Vulnerability in the Balkan Region


Date: (19-01-2016)

CMDR COE would like to share with counterparts, collaborators and the whole crisis management and disaster response community of interest its first good news for the New 2016.

Our organisation has received formal confirmation on the proposal for Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) “Implications of Climate Change and Disasters on Military Activities: Building Resiliency and Mitigating Vulnerability in the Balkan Region” as consistent to the NATO SPS program. It has been approved and there is a green light to commence preparation for upcoming event.

The objective of the proposed ARW is to: (1) examine the implications of climate change induced natural disasters on military activities in the Balkan region, and (2) identify both policy and technical approaches to building resiliency and (3) to mitigate the regional vulnerability to potential catastrophic disasters (e.g., flooding). This workshop will evaluate these current and future capabilities by further defining the problems and challenges that climate change poses to civil-military missions and objectives in the Balkans and over other disaster prone areas throughout Eastern Europe. One goal of the ARW will be to transition technology and knowledge in the fields of geospatial analytics and climate change. A concurrent critical objective will be to build partner capacity to support regional military cooperation and adaptation to climate change.

The workshop will bring together lecturers from the US EUCOM, ERDC, Hawaiian Center of Excellence on Disaster Response and Humanitarian Assistance, EADRCC and other leading emergency management experts. Participants will be invited from countries from the Balkans - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, FYROM, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, as well other PfP Nations as Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and others that regularly require crisis management and disaster response. The further anticipated outcome of such event is to be developed as an annual course for understanding the potential impacts of climate change on military operations.

The workshop is draft scheduled for the first week of July`2016 and will take place in Sofia and will be co-chaired by Col. Orlin Nikolov (BG AF) and col. Catarina Strbac (SRB LF)



News

The initial planning conference for the SEESIM 14 exercise was held in Zagreb, Croatia

The initial planning conference for the distributed computer assisted exercise South Eastern Europe Simulation Network (SEESIM 14) was held in Zagreb, Croatia. The Republic of Bulgaria is co-organizer and participates actively in the conducting of the exercise together with the Host Nation. Among the participants are also representatives of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro, Romania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, United States of America and the SEEBRIG.

The exercise is held under the auspices of the Ministers of Defence of the SEE Nations.

 

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CMDR COE FEBRUARY Forthcoming events
  • In 3-7 of February experts from the CMDR COE team will take part in the Final Planning Conference of the SABER GUARDIAN ′14 Exercise, organized by the US EUCOM and BGR LANDFORCE.

The purpose of the exercise is to train and educate civilian and military participants in planning and conducting an UN mandated Chapter VII Peace Operation/Crisis Response Operation, based on a Comprehensive Approach, and focusing on co-operation and co-ordination within an unstable environment, involving all stakeholders. The principal exercise focus is the civilian-military cooperation and coordination. The scenario supports exercising a wide range of peace operations functions (e.g. rule of law, humanitarian, etc.). The CMDR COE will contribute to achieving the exercise objectives by providing subject matter expert support in the CMDR area and by organizing distributed point for White cell.

  • In 11-13 February 2014 the Civil-Military Interaction: Disaster Preparedness and Response Workshop will take place in Sofia. The workshop is sponsored by the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria and the CMDR COE. The workshop comprises lectures dedicated to NATO and EU Crisis Management, role of military in civil security, risk management, as well as discussions and tabletop exercise.
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Internal CMDR COE Seminar on the Crisis in Syria

The CMDR COE organised an internal seminar which was held on 20.12.2013. The main focus of the seminar was the crisis in Syria. The CMDR COE experts discussed issued related to the chronology of the crisis; the increased influx of refugees to neighbouring countries and Bulgaria; the positions of NATO, the UN and EU; the involvement of international humanitarian organisations etc.

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Visualizing Implications of Climate Change on Military Activities and Relationships was conducted

On 11-12 December 2013, the Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence (CMDR COE) co-hosted together with US European Command (USEUCOM) and the US embassy in Bulgaria the workshop Visualizing Implications of Climate Change on Military Activities and Relationships. The opening remarks were given by the Deputy Minister of Defence of Bulgaria, Mr. Ivan Ivanov, who welcomed the participants and underlined the importance of the topics that the workshop focused on.

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