Lara MARTINHO (Portugal)
22 November 2020
[...] Today, NATO’s DCB initiative is an integral part of the core of NATO’s cooperative security outreach with partners. The programme allows NATO Allies to focus on working very closely with select partners to make their defence institutions, forces and capabilities stronger and more resilient. The drive of the initiative is to focus support on those areas where existing tools are not capable of responding to the scope and focus of desired cooperation in order to deliver tailor-made, effective defence and related security sector support that comes with the strong political backing of Allies – the motto defence experts use for the DCB initiative in the hallways of the International Secretariat in Brussels is one nation, one plan. This draft report will review the history of NATO’s bilateral cooperative security outreach, and then highlight efforts being made in the current five DCB recipients. It will also endeavour to highlight persistent challenges to making NATO’s defence capacity building initiative more effective. It will conclude with interim recommendations for NATO parliamentarians considering the issue.