On 18 and 19 October, GAP crew presented recent project developments at the International Society of Military Sciences „Military Sciences and Future Security Challenges” international conference was organized by the National Security Department, with the participation of the entire university and members of ISMS. International Society of Military Sciences is an association that brings together military universities such as: Austrian National Defence Academy, Baltic Defence College, Royal Military College of Canada, Royal Danish Defence College, Finnish National Defence University, Netherlands Defence Academy, Norwegian Defence University College, Royal Military Academy of Belgium and War Studies University to exchange their observations and research results, and pursue that in military sciences it is not just about technology, techniques and procedures, because all conflicts concern people first and foremost and the military is not separated from the society.
During this jubilee conference, since the Association celebrated its tenth anniversary, the opening of the conference had a very festive character, due to the participation of all Rectors – Commandants of the universities who are members of the association. During this conference, where apart from celebrating the decade of existence of the association, there was ample time and place for debate and exchange of ideas. The most important thing was to find the answer to two very important questions: “What should be the balance of our efforts in the military profession, between transforming military science to serve prevention and management, and maximizing capacity for winning wars?” and “What do defence universities have to do to fulfill their responsibilities to society and the international community as custodians of the military sciences?” The participants could find answers to these two questions during speeches in 9 working groups. The participants were able to hear about 70 lectures during these two productive days delivered by international speakers from around the world.
During lectures in one of the panels, Security Education, Dr. Kamila Trochowska presented a speech on “Soft Skills for Security and Defense: Cross-Cultural Competence and Beyond”, which was devoted to the Gaming for Peace project’s 3C aspects. Moreover, the participants had the chance to further discuss GAP developments at the series of posters by Prof. Anne Holohan, Dr. Kamila Trochowska and Kamil Kuć. The “GAP: The Proteus effect in action” poster explained the 101 of the project, “Soft Skills and the Polish Police – interviews results” which summarized the results of research carried out by Dr Walentyna Trzcińska and MA Kamil Kuć about preparation for foreign missions in the Polish Police, and “GAP and Cross-Cultural Competence” expanded on operationalization of culture for CPPB purposes and the game itself.
The presentations received a truly positive feedback from our potential and future end-users. As one of te experienced military participants put it: “The world is changing, technology goes along. We must use the maximum of this technology be able to end conflicts faster. I believe that if this game fulfils its mission, we will witness progress in people, too”.
