Defense institutions

Strategic messaging is ever more important in the age of explosive social media. So much information flows to and through societies, governments and individu­als that any attempt to organize and make sense of the data is welcome for its ability to be consumed. Not all information on the Internet is benign. Some indi­viduals and organizations work to manipulate the information to represent their views. Some go beyond and use information as a tool to persuade. Some gov­ernments weaponize data into propaganda to purposefully harm other nations.

The United States has been in the business of assisting partner nations’ militaries for decades. The original security assistance framework that was first developed in the 1960s, however, has proven insufficient to keep up with the demands of the 21^st century security environment. As such, the broader U.S.

Introduction

“If our neighbours are more stable, we are more secure.” This statement,[1] made by the NATO Heads of State and Government at their 2016 Summit in Warsaw, touches upon the core of NATO’s work on Projecting Stability. However, efforts aimed at “projecting stability” are not easy to contextualize and conceptualize – ‘stability’ may carry different connotations depending on the circumstances.

Transparent and accountable, efficient and effective Defense Institution Building (DIB) is one of the shared values that binds together not only NATO but also NATO’s Partnership Programming. In this way, DIB is also an essential part of defense management and reform.