The Defense Staff, in cooperation with the New Strategy Center and the Center for the Study of the New Generation Warfare from the USA, organized a strategic level exercise on April 14-16, entitled “Enhanced Resilience – Strong Deterrence”.
The exercise was inter-institutional, with the participation, physical and online, of representatives of the National Defense System, Public Order and National Security, other institutions with responsibility in the field of resilience at the national level, as well as experts from the USA. Representatives of the Polish Ministry of Defense were also invited to observe the exercise online.
The fictitious scenario of the exercise considered a complex of hybrid actions that simultaneously and adaptively use a diverse spectrum of unconventional and conventional means, but avoiding direct military confrontation, so that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty cannot be activated. The aim of the exercise was to increase coordination, increase interinstitutional cohesion and identify common solutions in the civilian and military fields in terms of defense, resilience and deterrence in the event of a hybrid aggression.
The strategic exercise “Enhanced Resilience – Strong Deterrence” demonstrated the need to increase national resilience, as Romania’s first line of defense, being a major requirement under the NATO 2030 initiative to respond to the realities of the global security environment, when potential adversaries seek to destabilize nations less through military force, but especially through a complex of unconventional and conventional means, using advanced manipulation technologies.
During the exercise, an exchange of good practices took place between the participating institutions and organizations, between the military and civilian structures, identifying the need for them to be extended to NATO and EU level. It has been shown that a robust and effective response to widespread aggression in the event of a hybrid war will be based on cohesion and Allied solidarity, which are, in fact, the main means of deterrence.
We note that during the exercise, epidemiological protection measures against COVID 19 were applied in accordance with the provisions in force, including by conducting rapid tests for all participants.