The George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies held its first Alumni Scholar Group research project Nov. 27, 2023, at the Central Military Library in Warsaw, Poland. The project is titled, “NATO After Vilnius – The Way Ahead.”

The workshop, chaired by Marshall Center Professor Fritz Rademacher, brought together seven scholars and faculty from across Europe along with Doctrine and Training Center of the Polish Armed Forces' (CDiS SZ) Director Col. Dr. Andrzej Lis and Deputy Director Col. Dr. Robert Reczkowski; Capt. Jaroslaw Kutka, Commander of the NATO Force Integration Unit Poland; and external experts from NATO Headquarters, the NATO Defence College, Germany and Marshall Center Faculty.

Organized by the Marshall Center Alumni Programs in close cooperation with CDiS SZ, the event was facilitated by the Marshall Center Faculty’s Polish Chair, Rear Adm. Piotr Niec, and held back-to-back with GLOBSTATE 2023, a three-day international research conference devoted to the assessment and analysis of the security environment put on by CDiS SZ.

In seven sessions throughout the day, participants and experts addressed a broad range of issues of direct importance to NATO after its summit this year in Vilnius, as well as focusing on next year’s summit meeting to be held in Washington, D.C. 

One of the strengths of the program, says Alumni Scholar Leon Runje, is that “it brings together colleagues from various backgrounds and countries…The intersection of different perspectives, primarily from various Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Ministries of Defense, as well as different national perspectives greatly enriches the contributions provided to the project by individual participants.”

In addition to its individual alumni scholarships, the Marshall Center offers groups of alumni scholars the opportunity to pursue, with the help of Marshall Center faculty members, specific research on issues of mutual interest. The alumni scholar groups are an important part of the Center’s overall effort to stay connected with their alumni base and to cultivate its network. It provides the participating alumni an opportunity to achieve their professional development and to advance their individual careers, while at the same time benefitting the strength and depth of their respective national administrations and organizations.

“This project, so generously funded by the Marshall Center Alumni Office and supported by the Polish CDiS SZd, is a win-win for all involved,” said Rademacher. “It addresses important questions of Euro-Atlantic security and defense and contributes to the wider debate on the future of the Atlantic Alliance at a critical time for our shared security and international peace and stability.”

The NATO Alumni Scholar Group research project’s next milestone will be a conference held by the Marshall Center, in cooperation with the CDiS SZ and supported by NATO and national experts, in early March 2024 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, when the project participants will present the results of their respective work to an expert audience of NATO and national experts, leading to a publication in the CDiS SZ’ series in time for the Washington Summit.

This research project started as a discussion during the Seminar on Regional Security held at the Marshall Center in the spring of 2023, when a group of participants expressed their interest in working with Rademacher on NATO issues. With help from the Alumni office and the CDiS SZ, the idea took off.

Ultimately, the project will lead to a book publication that Rademacher will edit, with Niec and Maj. Gen. Miha Skerbinc, seconded professor from Slovenia, as co-editors at the Marshall Center and the CDiS SZ as the co-editor on the Polish side.