The Civil Servants Course
The first Civil Servants Course, which started in the spring of 2001, was intended to improve the skills of the students as policy advisors and to deepen the understanding of their role as civil servants in defence and security community. The previous courses were oriented to strengthen the students' capacity to understand and administer the complex build-up and reform, as well as the maintenance and management, of national defence structures within the Baltic States' context, including co-operation with other state agencies, with other states and with NATO.
The Civil Servants Course 2008 will use the best experience of the previous courses, however, more emphasis will be placed at addressing the needs of the national ministries and other governmental agencies, which are dealing with security issues, in order to prepare civil servants for the work in the international environment. A special attention will be given to building skills and knowledge necessary for contributing to the international operations, both at the strategic and operational levels.
To achieve maximum synergy among the courses of the college as well as to increase the exposure of the CSC students to the military environment and culture, most of its classes will be conducted jointly with the Joint Command and General Staff Course. This should provide the students of both courses with the best possible understanding of the development of security and defence policy as the interaction and inter-dependence between political decision makers, civil servants and the military.
The course lasts 5 months and covers a broad area of subjects reflecting the fundamental underlying philosophy of providing a broad, multi-disciplinary education and the analytical instruments necessary for the Civil Servants to deal with complexity and volatility of the contemporary environment. The Civil Servants will have a seven week period between their residential periods in Tartu when they will return to their respective organizations for regular duties and will continue the learning process through individual research projects and web-based distance learning. During this period, the “outreach” students will go to the MODs of the Baltic States for on-the-job training in order to get practical experience in defence administration and management.
The mandate of CSC 2008 is to develop Civil Servants with:
- an understanding of the nature and character of contemporary military operations and of the latest operational trends;
- an understanding the role which the civilian component plays in planning and conducting contemporary peace support, crisis response and counterinsurgency operations;
- an understanding of how to contribute to the decision making process in the defence management process and in the decision-making on issues related to defence and security;
- an understanding of NATO operational planning process and its application;
- an ability to contribute to the planning and conduct of military and interagency operations;
- skills and knowledge in management of defence capabilities in contemporary security environment