Introduction by the Commandant
The National Defence Academy(NDA) is the carrier of security-political research and
instruction in the field of military science in Austria. The Academy effectively fulfils its
function as the supreme training, education and research institution of the
Austrian Armed Forces, with the support of its various institutes or elements dealing
with research management, EDP-based command simulation, higher military command
studies, strategy and security policy, peace support and conflict management, human
and social sciences, language training, interpreting and translation issues, the
establishment of intercultural competence, documentation and knowledge management,
military-scientific publishing as well as the Strategic Leadership Course, which connects
the military with the political and the economic sector. The National Defence Academy,
by intensifying national and international cooperation on a well-founded scientific basis
at university level, takes into consideration the changed security-political and
socio-political conditions as well as the new challenges of the tertiary educational
environment.
Academy training is to enable military and civilian, national and international leaders
to successfully cope with the comprehensive challenges of the present and those of
tomorrow. The basis for this are both the interdisciplinary approach and the cross-linking
of NDA research findings and instruction contents with its expertise, acquired through its
diverse national and international cooperation. Also the conveyance and internalisation
of command-related values and virtues are to be taken into particular account. This is to
help to achieve a high measure of comprehensive leadership competence and
outstanding motivation as well as to lay the basis for sustainable, employee-oriented
leadership and a pioneering corporate culture.
Lieutenant General Erich Csitkovits