EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Technology, USA

As set forth in MCM-236-03, MC Concept for Centres of Excellence (4.12.2003), all NATO Centres of Excellence are to be assessed against a set of approved criteria in order to achieve accreditation. Centres are assessed by NATO's Headquarters Supreme Allied Command Transformation as a result of the questionnaire and the assessment team visit, which took place in Riga, 22.-23.07.2014.

Considered to be international military organizations, the primary purpose of Centres of Excellence is to assist with transformation within the Alliance, while avoiding the duplication of assets, resources and capabilities already present within the NATO command structure. Centres of Excellence (COEs) are nationally or multi-nationally funded institutions that train and educate leaders and specialists from NATO member and partner countries, assist in doctrine development, identify lessons learned, improve interoperability, and capabilities and test and validate concepts through experimentation.

COEs are not part of the NATO command structure, they are facilities in the Euro-Atlantic area recognized by the Alliance for their expertise.

Based in Riga, Latvia, NATO StratCom COE is established to contribute towards improved strategic communications capabilities of the Alliance and the Allied Nations. The Centre will design programs to advance StratCom doctrine development and standardisation, conduct research and experimentation to find practical solutions to existing challenges, identify lessons from applied StratCom during the operations, as well as enhance training and education efforts and interoperability.

StratCom COE will operate as a hub for debate and expertise within various STRATCOM disciplines: Public Diplomacy, Public Affairs, Military Public Affairs, Information Operations and Psychological Operations. It will engage different information discipline professionals to support policy planning and kinetic actions at the strategic, tactical and operational levels alike. In its work the Centre will emphasise inclusiveness and utilize virtual networks to leverage existing and desired national communications capacity.