The 13th Annual conference of CMDR COE
Date: (04-06-2025)
Since its official accreditation in 2015, the CMDR Centre of Excellence acts as a focal point of crisis management and disaster response analysis, expertise building, information and best-practices sharing. This year, the annual conference was built around a timely and thought-provoking theme: “Ensuring continuity management in a new security environment".
Placing the focus on the arising security challenges, the CMDR COE seeks to draw attention to adequate preparedness and contribute to timely adaption within the crisis management and disaster response domain to NATO’s continuous transformation.
In such context CMDR COE carried out its 13th Annual Conference on 4 June 2025. This year event encompassed three panels - Comprehensive Strategies for Modern Crisis Preparedness; CMDR COE in support of NATO Transformation; Building a Realistic Environment for Complex Crisis/Disaster Exercise Scenario.
The main purpose is to reveal beneficial practices that have been found and might be useful. Naturally, this idea reflected on the composition of the conference. Different organisations and entities have formulated their own approaches, all of which refer in general to improving capabilities in the fields of their own assets and assessments. Most national crisis response strategies emphasize the synergies of cooperation in the efficient use of limited resources, thus it is very important the roles and responsibilities to be distinct in order to be mutually complementary. The objective remains as the interagency interaction is to develop coherence and effectiveness with due regard for each actor’s area of expertise.
The Conference opening address was delivered by the Deputy Minister of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr. Radostin Iliev, who noted that combined expertise and innovative thinking are of utmost importance in developing capacities to meet the challenges to the global security. He emphasized CMDR COE’s strong position among NATO’s Centres of Excellence and highlighted the critical need to maintain comprehensive approach in response to present crises worldwide.
News

From October 7, 2019, a new Deputy Director has commenced term of service in the Centre.
» read more
Apparent participation of CMDR COE in the biggest multinational CAX for 2019
» read more
Formally collaboration with the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior
» read more
Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa, H.E. Mr Thabo Thage paid a visit to the Centre
» read more
CMDR COE conducted its resident Crisis Response Operations Planners Professional Development (CROPPD) Course.
» read more
CMDR COE Mobile Education and Training Team (METT) successfully conducted a Planning and Conducting Disaster Relief Operations Course at South-Eastern Europe Brigade (SEEBRIG) HQ
» read more
Our team participated in the Sofia Ekiden Relay Marathon
» read more
The Final Technical Conference (FTC) of the exercise was hosted by CMDR COE
» read more
CMDR COE METT in David Aghmashenebeli National Defence Academy, Georgia
» read more
CMDR COE welcomed a visitor team from the Tennessee National Guard (TN NG)
» read more
NATO HQ met represantatives of the 25 NATO-accredited Centres of Excelence (COEs), 15-16 July 2019 in Brussels
» read more
CMDR COE has earned Unconditional Accreditation and NATO Quality Assurance Certificate
» read more
Collaboration Framework Agreement was signed with the Capacity Building International Institute (Delaware, USA)
» read more
The Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence has concluded the 7th Annual Conference on Interagency Interaction in Crisis Management and Disaster Response on June 6, 2019 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
» read more
The 2019 resident Disaster Management course was successfully conducted on the newly renovated CMDR COE premises on 13-17 May 2019, and parallel to the NATO Quality Assurance Process for the Centre.
» read more
HQ SACT Quality Assurance Team of Experts with a 2-day visit in Sofia as a part of the Quality Assurance accreditation process of the CMDR COE
» read more
Mr. Damir Krstičević, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Croatia visited the CMDR COE on May 3, 2019.
» read more
“One Day Round Table Discussion”, over the development of the new editions of the NATO Strategic Foresight Analysis (SFA) and Framework for Future Alliance Operations (FFAO) Reports
» read more
A productive and informative discussion on most pressing climate change challenges to security.
» read more
CMDR COE reception in the newly opened premises of the Centre
» read more
MNCG conducted its biggest exercise since its establishment - DORR`19 (18-22 March 2019)

Notable CMDR course this year - first time attended by participants from Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, Tunisia and UAE
» read more
The purpose is to promote ideas in a way that will advance the common understanding as well as gain points of view that might not have been otherwise considered.
» read more
The first NATO GFP course - the CMDR COE and the Nordic Centre for Gender in MIlitary Operations (NCGM) join forces for mainstreaming gender in a military context.
» read more
By conducting NATO Crisis Response System Course from 29 to 31 January 2019, Sofia, CMDR COE marked its first educational event for the year of 2019.
» read more
A post-exercise Lessons Identified Conference in regard of command-post and field exercise "SRBIJA 2018".
» read more
Colonel Roussinov relinquished the position of the CMDR COE Director to Colonel Nikolov who assumed the command. The ceremony was attended by high representatives from the Sponsoring Nations: the Republic of Bulgaria, Hellenic Republic and Republic of Poland as well as distinguished guests from governmental entities and academia.
» read more
State Secretary of Serbian MoD, Aleksandar Zivkovic opened a four-day training for psychologists from the Ministry of Defense and the Army of Serbia called "Training for the management of stress and resilience" and emphasized that the Ministry of Defense appreciates the work of psychological services in all segments.
» read more
The CMDR COE conducted its resident, NATO SELECTED, Strategic Decision-Making for Crisis Response Operations (SDMCRO) Course on 26-30 NOV 2018 at Hotel Shipka, Sofia. This year the course methodology was premised on adult learning - a method enabling the active involvement of trainees in the process of learning by encouraging critical thinking, communication, and problem solving based on individual approach and creativity.
» read more
On Thursday, November 8, Polish Senior National Representative, COL Dariusz Dobron held National Independence Day ceremony which was dedicated to commemorate the anniversary of the restoration of Poland’s sovereignty. Ceremony started with historical outline of the recovery of Polish Independence, followed by reception. The ceremony was honored by the presence of Polish Chargé d′affaires Mr Andrzej Mojkowski, Minister Consul Mr Andrzej Janik, Defense Attaché COL Marek Warmiński and COM NFIU BG COL Stayko Prokopiev.
» read more