What do Romanian high school students know about NATO? Where do they inform themselves from? What does it mean for a country to be a NATO member?
In December, the Romanian Centre for European Policies welcomed in Bucharest, for two days, 27 high school students and teachers from Vaslui, Buzau and Vrancea. They were the winners of an interactive competition about NATO, which consisted in the production of essays, drawings, infographics or animations about what NATO means to the high school students, what they know about the North Atlantic Alliance and where they collect information on this topic from.
We had meetings with American officials, specialists in military, political and communication matters from the U.S. Embassy Bucharest, as well as with members of the NATO Force Integration Unit in Bucharest, where we had the opportunity to discuss on the strategic partnership between Romania and the United States, the presence of NATO in Romania and the specific challenges to the Eastern Flank. In addition, the discussion also encompassed the curiosities of the high school students, such as whether the Morse code is compulsory for the NATO staff, how the NATO troops and equipment are transported to Romania or what it means for a soldier to participate in an operational theatre.
The CRPE study visit belongs to the ‘#WeAreNATO: A new narrative for NATO – a more engaging one for youths’ programme, financed by NATO Public Diplomacy Division.
