“A couple of days after term papers were turned in, 35 BSIS students embarked on a day trip to Mons, Belgium on January 9th to visit NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The visit consisted of a short tour on the base and a 3 hour briefing session. One interesting thing that we learned on the tour was about the rotation of the national flags in front of SHAPE. They are arranged in the order of the French alphabet and every Sunday the flags are rotated one position further so that no nation’s symbol is front and centre, appearing to hold precedence over another. The briefing session explained the history, structure, and purpose of SHAPE. Distinct from NATO HQ’s political-level focus, SHAPE is responsible for the military strategy of planning and executing commands from NATO HQ.
In the middle of the briefing session, our student group had a surprise visit from alumna Tizia Luisa Rong who was a former master student at the University of Kent’s, Brussels School of International Studies (BSIS). At BSIS, she studied International Conflict and Security with EU External Relations. Currently, she is the Senior Mentor Program Coordinator for the NATO-Georgia Exercise 2022, managing internal NATO and NATO-GEO discussions on the ambition and way forward for the tri-annual exercise. Tizia and her fellow colleague spoke to the BSIS students and answered questions about career opportunities at NATO. Her connection to BSIS and understanding of the academic background of the audience was a great contribution and rewarding aspect of the trip. Many of the students enjoyed speaking with the BSIS alumna and her colleague.
Overall, the trip to SHAPE was very informative. The students were able to learn about SHAPE’s position in the overall structure of NATO, as well as the reality of what it would be like to work at SHAPE. One advantage about the University of Kent’s Brussels campus is that it is located near major organisations like NATO, the European Union, and the headquarters for many major NGOs and International Organisations. Students have an opportunity to visit and learn from the organisations directly, in addition to the academic programs at BSIS.”
-Caitlin Marshall, PhD candidate for International Relations