By Public Affairs Office
George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies

ULAANBAATAR (Dec. 14, 2015) - Mongolia graduated the first class of the Mongolian Staff Officer Course Dec. 11. 

MSOC was developed by the Mongolian National Defense University in close cooperation with Deputy Dean Prof. Dr. Sven Bernhard Gareis through the framework of the Defense Education Enhancement Program.

Speaking before the new class of eighteen graduating officers, Maj. Gen. Yadmaa Choijamts, president of the MNDU, highlighted the work undertaken by the MNDU and its partners.

“The Mongolian Staff Officer Course will play an active role in preparing the high level staff officer corps in not only in our Armed forces, but also in other national security agencies. MSOC is the crucial link of our Professional Military Education chain,” said Choijamts.

In his address to the graduates Gareis emphasized their role as a new generation of defense educators that will bring the Mongolian Armed Forces substantially ahead in their modernization process.

“The Marshall Center is supporting the Mongolian National Defense University as part of the Defense Education Enhancement Program run by the Partnership for Peace Consortium and NATO. This cooperation aims at cementing collaboration between Mongolian and NATO country Professional Military Education institutions, modernizing teaching methods and curriculum, strengthening interagency dimensions of the MNDU's academic program, and carving out a niche for Mongolia as a provider in the NATO and partner education and training community,” said Gareis.

DEEP Mongolia was initiated in 2013 at the request of the Mongolian Ministry of Defense.

The program has bolstered the MNDU's faculty and curriculum development efforts through the academic leadership of the George C. Marshall Center and the active involvement of experts from institutions such as the German General Staff and Command College in Hamburg and the Slovak Armed Forces Academy in Liptopvsky-Mikulas.

Jointly managed by NATO and the Partnership for Peace Consortium, the DEEP program features multi-year cooperation plans with partner countries to assist with the modernization of defense education institutions. To date DEEP programs are underway in 13 countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Serbia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.