The Defence Academy has once again played host to the prestigious Senior Strategic Leadership Programme (SSLP), welcoming strategic leaders and national opinion-formers from around the world.
SSLP is open to senior politicians, civil servants and military officers from countries selected by the MOD. The course is the MOD’s most senior defence engagement event, providing the UK government with to the opportunity to meet with its international peers and discuss priorities and cooperation. It is designed to put the UK MOD at the centre of a strong and diverse network of allies and friends.
At this year’s course, from 3 – 7 July, 29 delegates of OF4 to two-star rank (commander/lieutenant colonel/wing commander to major general/rear admiral and international and civilian equivalents) attended from 26 countries and five continents. Nations represented included: Bahamas, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cyprus, Guyana, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Kosovo, Libya, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Peru and the USA.
Topics including leadership, strategic context, thinking skills, ethics, international law, decision-making and strategy development were delivered by some of the UK’s leading academics and subject matter experts, including a number from Cranfield University. Delegates also spent a day in London, where they were briefed by the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, James Heappey MP; the Defence Select Committee; Chief of Defence Intelligence; National Security Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s military assistant.
It wasn’t all work, however, as the Defence Academy hosted two social functions. At an evening reception in the Cormorant Building, Air Commodore Hamish Cormack, Deputy Commandant of the Defence Academy, gave an introductory address to the gathering of delegates, members of the next Advanced Command and Staff Course (ACSC), and Defence Attachés. And at a formal dinner in Beckett House, Lt Gen (Retd) Sir Graeme Lamb gave an after-dinner speech.