We maintain broad contacts with military educational institutions in Europe and the USA

The Head of “G. S. Rakovski” Military Academy Major-General Evgeni Petrov Manev before Bulgarian Diplomatic Review magazine

The most significant event for the Bulgarian army is Bulgaria’s accession to NATO. What effect will this exert on the education of our future militaries? Will there be any special requirements or changes in the way they are trained?
Yes, definitely. The changes have been necessary even prior to the present moment. The close link of education with the reality we live in and the tasks we solve is an extremely important issue in our educational system. What has happened as a result of Bulgaria’s accession to NATO? The strategic environment has changed. Consequently it calls for changes in the education as well, although Bulgaria has never interrupted its preparation, including in its military educational system, for the day of joining the Alliance. From now on the country is to achieve an all-out operative compatibility with the forces of NATO for another lengthy and permanent process. Like the other member countries, which have not come to a standstill, we should continue our development, too. Here lies the subtlety and the wisdom of the managing body in charge of the development of the military educational system – to adapt it in the shortest terms and make it operatively compatible. Once there is a change in the strategic environment, we need a change in the educational strategy. This will not be accomplished in a day or two. The change began and went through the years when Bulgaria was a participating country in the Partnership for Peace Treaty.

The first thing we have to achieve in all spheres is operative compatibility in the way of thinking, i.e. mental operative compatibility. The officers and civilians that we train at “G. S. Rakovski” Military Academy should be able to handle the same yardsticks, the same categories and methodologies as the other countries in the Alliance. This process began right after 1990 and continued at an accelerated pace in certain areas.

As I said, this year we launched seven new master’s programmes at the National Security and Defence Faculty, which have been through a one-year probation period, they were adapted and now are well in their second year. At the same time, account has been taken of the national peculiarities and needs about which our future managerial staff will have to possess adequate knowledge on an international scale as well as from a national standpoint. We have carefully considered these problems and this is a major concern of the managing staff of lecturers and researchers at the Military Academy – more specifically, the quality of our programmes. On the one hand, modern experience and achievements have been introduced, on the other, the national needs are duly taken into consideration. Every year these programmes are improved on the basis of the new requirements for the armed forces. Thus, as of March 29, and from now on, we will build on our past achievements, complying with the specifics of the modern time, the new reality and the new strategic environment.

This poses a problem not only for the newly acceded countries. This is an ongoing process in the older NATO member countries – you can see how radically the situation changed in the world, in the geopolitical and geostrategic regions, as well as in the missions of the armed forces involving military operations other than war. We receive clear indication from national defence institutes and higher military academies from all over the world, that they also work on the improvement and adaptation of the programmes for the next academic year. We maintain extensive contacts with the Bulgarian military educational institutions, i.e. higher schools, and related European and American educational establishments. We exchange information and lecturers and have programmes for cooperation. We draw on their experience. I will only mention the fact that one of the prestigious factors for any higher military institution is the percentile ratio of militaries to civilians. In the education of future senior military commanders and future civilian heads in ministries, “G. S. Rakovski” Military Academy has attained a ratio of over 50% civilians to militaries on a strategic level. The civilians outnumber the militaries.