Multinational PSYOPS Course in Budapest

The aim of the training course held at the base of the HDF Civil-Military Cooperation and Psychological. Operations Centre (HDF CMCPOC) is to provide the multinational student personnel with a consistent picture and approach about the basic functions and tasks of the psychological operations.

To our inquiry Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Gábor Hangya, the Deputy Commander of the HDF CMCPOC said that the psychological operations are a capability developed in NATO, which deals with influencing the civilian environment. “Psychological operations have their various means, products – leaflets, video spots – with which the civilian environment can be influenced" – we learned from the Lieutenant Colonel.

The Deputy Commander of the Centre said that the syllabus of the one-week course was compiled by the experts of quite a few countries. “The syllabus was basically built upon NATO documents and their own experiences. The students can learn, inter alia, about the concept, the scientific background and also the historical development of PSYOPS" – the Lieutenant Colonel added.

Another specifity of the course is that following the theoretical lectures, the students can practice what they have learnt in small groups, under a fictitious scenario. At the end of the core training the participants are provided such a comprehensive NATO PSYOPS picture, on the basis of which they can easily navigate among the tasks of the individual organisational units of a brigade-level Psychological Operations Support Element.

“The multinational environment is very important to us, not only in respect of the English language, which in this case is a working language, but also because the kind of approach that can be acquired here is not possessed by other nations" – Lieutenant Colonel Hangya stressed.

In the one-week English language course the Hungarians were represented with 17 students, the largest number from among the participants delegated by the four nations – Danish, Finnish, Polish, and Hungarian.