NATO Tour - Transformation and Capabilities

The Foreign Press Centers' Defense Department Liaison Officer organized and conducted a reporting tour for thirteen senior editors from eleven NATO countries and two invitee countries. The tour focused on the themes of Transformation and Capabilities. The tour began in Brussels under the auspices of US-NATO public affairs and continued in Washington and Norfolk, VA from October 27-November 4. While in Washington, the correspondents had interviews with DoD Assistant Secretaries Doug Feith and Ian Brezezinski, State Assistant Secretaries Beth Jones and Richard Boucher, and Senator Richard Lugar; visited defense contractors Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin and Boeing (where they met with Ambassador Thomas Pickering, senior vice-president for International Relations); and interviewed several think-tank and National Defense University scholars. At Norfolk, Va, they had a session with the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander for NATO's Allied Transformation Command, the Commander of NATO's Striking Fleet Atlantic, and tours of an aircraft carrier and a submarine.