NATO Representatives

The chapter's October meeting was held at NATO Headquarters (HQ) in Brussels, Belgium. Ambassador Maurits Jochems, deputy assistant secretary general for operations, NATO HQ, shared his experiences in Afghanistan, where he served for six months as the NATO ambassador at International Security Assistance Force Headquarters. Eric Povel, press officer, Media Operations Center on Afghanistan, NATO Press Service, discussed collective defense, crisis management and peacekeeping operations. Folkert Joustra, infrastructure adviser to the Netherlands permanent representative, NATO HQ, explained NATO has adopted a "best value" approach for its contracts, balancing price and selection criteria. Cmdr. Peter Adegeest, RNLN, command, control and communications (C3) adviser to the Netherlands military representative, NATO HQ, provided an overview of NATO's Bi-Strategic Command automated information system project (AIS). Alain Klein, AIS program office, NATO C3 Agency, discussed the information and communications technology architecture of the new NATO HQ.