URJC and the Spanish Atlantic Association sign a collaboration agreement

Raul Garcia Hemonnet

The rector of the URJC, Javier Ramos, and the president of the Atlantic Association and former Secretary of State for Defense (2012-2016), Pedro Argüelles Salaverría, have signed a framework agreement in which they undertake to collaborate in matters of training, research and divulgation.

Within this framework agreement, specific initiatives include the holding of a seminar, still without a date, to analyze the next NATO summit, which will take place in Madrid on June 29 and 30 this year. In addition, also in the context of this agreement, different training sessions on NATO will be held within the program of the 'Francisco Villamartín Chair in Security and Defense' of the URJC and the Ministry of Defense directed by Professor Vicente Garrido Rebolledo who also He is a member of the Association, one of the promoters of the agreement that has just been signed.

According to Garrido, “this agreement falls within the scope of everything that the NATO summit in June is going to entail, as a way to contribute to broadening the knowledge of university students about the Organisation, beyond its military dimension. We want the students of the URJC to know the current reality of NATO and its usefulness in aspects such as hybrid threats, cybersecurity, climate change, operations, etc.”

The agreement serves, thus, to carry out activities that help to deepen the knowledge of the Atlantic Alliance beyond what is addressed in the academic curricula of the different subjects. The Spanish Atlantic Association has various experts in different aspects related to the field of Security and Defense, from journalists to ex-military or ex-politicians from different governments.

The Spanish Atlantic Association's main objective, as can be read in its statutes, is "to support the efforts of NATO, aimed at the development of peaceful international relations and the defense of the principles of Freedom, Democracy and the Rule of Law, as well as configure, within the North Atlantic Alliance, a European Community”.

With this signing between the two institutions, the URJC expands its collaboration agreements in the framework of Security and Defense. It is the first public university to sign an agreement of this type with the Spanish Atlantic Association.