Photo By Staff Sgt. Tiffany Lundberg | DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – U.K. Lt. Col. Joe Edkins, Eastern Africa Standby Force...... read more read more
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When multiple countries get together, experiences and beliefs are shared. Eastern Accord 2016 participants spent the first two days of the exercise learning from each other and from subject matter experts in preparation for the command post exercise.
EA16 is an annual, combined, joint military exercise that brings together partner nations to practice and demonstrate proficiency in conducting peacekeeping operations.
The two-day academics portion of the exercise gathered senior military and civilian leaders from Ethiopia, Djibouti, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. The participants were given the opportunity to share their experiences with peacekeeping operations and answer questions on topics that may arise during the planning process and command post exercise.
“The academics part of the exercise is important because we have to set the frame work in order to let our partner nations grow and learn together,” said U.S. Army Capt. Josh Dickinson, U.S. Army Africa operational law attorney. “It also brings out certain questions and topics that we all may not agree on so to facilitate those discussions ahead of the exercise is really important in order to get the most benefit out of the exercise itself.”
Dickinson taught law of armed conflict and human rights law with a concentration on sexual exploitation and abuse and is also an observer trainer to the partner nations judge advocates.
German Capt. Marcel Lossi, who is part of the training audience and subject matter expert for information operations in the public information office shop, agrees the academics portion facilitates a general understanding between the countries.
Lossi is the head of analysis for the German psychological operations and information operation center, information environment division analysis department. He also offers his experience as chief of information operations for the European Union operations in Somalia.
“It is important to get everyone on the same level. We are here from various countries with various backgrounds and various levels of experience,” he said. “You need to get people on one level so that everyone understands each other’s terminology and language.”
The two days of academic training fostered an exchange of ideas between countries as well as increasing each individual participant’s knowledge base.
“I really have to focus on my task and to teach someone something you must know (the topic) better than you think you know it going into it,” said Dickinson. “So for me to really sit down with the materials I am teaching and go through them so I am an expert on those tasks are really beneficial in the long term.”
The academics portion provided the participants the tools they needed to be successful during the planning portion of the exercise.
“Even though the academics part was pretty short, it was intense for two days. I think people are now eager to really get to work and get familiar with the scenario and start the real job,” said Lossi. “I’m really looking forward to how things develop for this exercise especially, for me personally, for the new people I get to meet that’s the real fun part of the exercise."
| Date Taken: | 07.13.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 07.13.2016 04:30 |
| Story ID: | 203804 |
| Location: | DAR ES SALAAM, TZ |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Eastern Accord ’16: Multiple countries learning together, by SSgt Tiffany Lundberg, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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