In light of the recently signed Letter of Cooperation, the NATO SFA COE’s Director, Col. Matteo LUCIANI and LEGAD, Maj. Ludovica GLORIOSO, met Glendon School’s Principal Marco FIOLA, Prof. of Political Science Francis GARON, the Director of the Glendon School of Public & International Affairs (GSPIA) Susan POND, and students of the Master’s programme in Public and International Affairs, at Glendon School, York University in Toronto, Canada.
The aim of the visit was to consolidate this new cooperation project between the two entities since they share a commitment to excellence and focus on topics of common interest. The Centre’s internship programme was also presented, and it was decided to select a student as the NATO SFA COE’s intern from Glendon School next February.
On the first day, the NATO SFA COE’s delegation presented the ongoing activities, and the developing project to the students of the Master’s in public and international Affairs at the Political Science Colloquium.
The visit also provided an excellent opportunity for honouring all the hard work that the Glendon School’s Director, Ms. Pond, dedicated to the NATO SFA COE, throughout the previous years and she also received the NATO SFA COE honorary title of Senior Fellow for the important contributions to the COE’s past projects and the ongoing support for the future ones (Susan Pond, Recently Appointed Director of the Glendon School of Public & International Affairs (GSPIA), Awarded as Senior Fellow by NATO Security Force Assistance Centre of Excellence (SFA COE) | Glendon Campus (yorku.ca).
On the second day, the COE’s internship programme was presented to the Glendon School’s students, emphasizing the unique opportunity of working with a multinational staff, engaged in peace, security, and development.
In the future, the collaboration with Glendon will focus on topics of common interest, such as issuing and co-authoring publications, newsletters (Special Issue NATO SFA COE as Academic Hub Newsletter (nsfacoe.org) and conducting joint research projects. Since York University is the first North American University to have concluded the above mentioned arrangement, it will also give the students the experience of being committed to challenging research projects with the ambition to contribute in promoting security and stabilization in an international scenario.
The partnership has the potential to be mutually beneficial due to the coherent aims of both institutions. An enhanced collaboration between military and civil entities is an added value to the nation’s system and method of addressing security challenges in our current complex reality.
