CPP played a major role in the annual Coping with Culture conference in Vienna, organised by the Bundeswehr’s Centre for Inner leadership and the Austrian National Defence Academy. Brigadier Dr Wolfgang Pelschel, Chief Editor, Austrian National Defence Academy gave a keynote presentation on CPP, which picked up on CPP as the key theme of the event.
Caption: Blue Shield on the entrance of the Austrian National Defence Academy, where the conference was held. © Blue Shield International, 2018.
Dr Fox led a CPP workshop over two days, supported by Dr Anna Kaiser of Donau University and her students, tackling CPP as a component part of the overall operational level planning process. Delegates were formed into several syndicates and asked to work together to assess threats, vulnerabilities and risks associated with a major museum in Vienna, in a wholly fictitious armed conflict scenario. The programme was generously supported by the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Military History Museum) – they gave workshop attendees a focused tour of the collections and the building, to enable them to study CPP from the perspective of a given mission during an armed conflict.
Caption: HGM curator working with delegates. © Blue Shield International, 2018.
Syndicates were composed of both military personnel and heritage professionals from a variety of countries, working together to achieve a common aim. The programme was ambitious, and we set out to challenge people, but by the end, delegates had clearly advanced their understanding of the need to work collaboratively across institutional and disciplinary boundaries. The final syndicate presentations were impressive; delegates had clearly benefited not only from the exercise, but from the opportunity to work across disciplines in a realistic CPP armed conflict scenario.
We’re already looking forward to the next iteration.
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Read about the successful 2019 CwC workshop, focusing on Centres Containing Monuments
