In 2020, NATO Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Centre of Excellence (COE) celebrates 10 years since North Atlantic Council approved its accreditation as a NATO Centre of Excellence and activation as an International Military Organization. Since joining NATO’s large family of COEs, HUMINT COE shaped itself to complement the Alliance’s current capabilities and support its transformation process.
HUMINT COE started with a nucleus of five nations: Romania, as the framework nation, and Greece, Hungary, Slovenia, and Turkey as sponsoring nations. A few years later, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and the United States joined the project. Together, they created a team of experts able to support NATO in adapting the HUMINT discipline to the requirements of modern warfare.
The HUMINT COE portfolio ranges the spectrum of activities related to the revision and development of NATO HUMINT standards, testing new technologies and developing new concepts. Foremost is the education and training of HUMINT personnel at the COE and in cooperation with NATO School Oberammergau and other COEs. Additional support is given to NATO exercises to identifying best practices, lessons learned, and representing the HUMINT discipline in working groups and conferences.
The HUMINT COE Director supports to broader mission as Chairman of HUMINT and HUMINT Technical Working Groups. Here representatives analyze NATO HUMINT structure, deficiencies, and identify solutions to further develop the domain in support of the Alliance’s requirements.
HUMINT COE’s 10-year anniversary represents an opportunity to highlight past achievements and a perfect time to focus on the future of HUMINT in the security environment. Overall, NATO’s transformation process places HUMINT COE into a complex environment, with numerous challenges, but at the same time with many opportunities to demonstrate its extraordinary resilience and relevance.
Milestones:
16.12.2009 – Signing Ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding among the Ministry of National Defence: Romania, the Ministry of National Defence: The Hellenic Republic, the Ministry of Defence: Hungary, the Ministry of Defence: Slovenia, the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey, and Headquarters, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation
16.03.2010 – Official opening of the HUMINT Centre of Excellence
14.07.2010 – Poland and Slovakia representatives signed the HUMINT COE Note of Joining
29.07.2010 – The accreditation of HUMINT COE as NATO Centre of Excellence and activation as International Military Organization, by the North-Atlantic Council
23.05.2011 – The Czech Republic representative signed the HUMINT COE Note of Joining
06.11.2012 – USA representative signed the HUMINT COE Note of Joining
15.10.2013 – Allied Command Transformation awarded HUMINT COE the Quality Assurance Unconditional Accreditation for Education and Training
02.09.2015 – Allied Command Transformation designated HUMINT COE as Department Head for Human Intelligence Education and Training in NATO
15.01.2016 – Revised MOUs Signing Ceremony
30.06.2017 – Change of Command BGEN Eduard SIMION handed over the HUMINT COE command to COL Florin-Vasile TOMIUC