Foreword

The Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC) welcomes you to attend our 2015 Air and Space Power Conference in Essen, Germany, from 23 to 25 November 2015.

The JAPCC is an accredited NATO Centre of Excellence which aims to provide key decision-makers with effective solutions on Air and Space Power challenges in order to safeguard NATO and the Nations’ interests. Our internationally renowned annual conference provides an interactive forum for delegates to exchange ideas and perspectives on Joint Air and Space Power topics.

Over the past ten years, the JAPCC conference has attracted senior political, military, industry and academia leaders, with attendance of above 130 flag officers in the last two years. The theme of this year’s conference is:

‘Air Power and Strategic Communications – NATO Challenges for the Future’

For NATO, the value of airpower is clear. It’s equally as clear to its adversaries, some of whom have minimal military capability to counter it and must instead leverage the information environment as their predominant weapon. As SACEUR, General Philip Breedlove, stated at the Wales Summit, ‘the most amazing information warfare blitzkrieg we have ever seen in the history of information warfare’ developed around the Ukrainian crisis, challenging the Alliance’s strategic communications capabilities.

There has been relatively little study on the role of strategic communications and airpower. The intention of the JAPCC is to deepen NATO’s understanding of this relationship. NATO requires public support to conduct operations and must improve its ability to communicate airpower’s role in strengthening international peace and security.

We believe that the key issues of strategic communications can only be addressed through a frank dialogue that involves leaders and top experts from all levels of the political, academic, military, and media spheres. In this years’ conference and during the course of the JAPCC research project on airpower and disinformation, we are fostering this dialogue to better understand the shortfalls and to develop sound solutions so that NATO airpower can meet its future challenges.

I strongly encourage you to read the attached paper to facilitate crystallizing your insights on the ways to improve the narratives, themes, and messages related to the employment of airpower in the benefit of achieving the Alliance strategic political and military objectives.

Please join this critical dialogue – we need your thoughts!

Joachim Wundrak
Lieutenant General, GE AF
Executive Director, JAPCC