The Rector of the Armed Forces Academy (AFA), Jozef Puttera, authorised by the Minister of Defence of the Slovak Republic, and the Adjutant General of the Indiana National Guard (USA) Courtney P. Carr signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the 31st of August 2017. The purpose of this act was to support the International Staff Officers’ Course – ISOC, held in the AFA.

    This act was completed after two years of cooperation between the two partners in the area of Professional Military Education. During this period, the transformation of the ISOC (2016) was carried out and a pilot course was held in accordance with NATO/USA standards (February- March 2017) for participants from the Slovak Armed Forces.

    The Memorandum of Understanding determines the extent of ISOC support with the aim of maintaining its quality and topicality. Moreover, the document stipulates the support of experts from the Indiana National Guard (ING) for the respective courses, knowledge implementation (Lessons Learned) during the update of the ISOC syllabus and an improvement in the course level in order to become more attractive for NATO member and partner countries.

    The first transformed ISOC with international participation will be held in AFA from September to December 2017.