Royal College of Defence Studies Team visit Poland
British Embassy Warsaw facilitated a familiarisation visit to Poland by a group from the Royal College of Defence Studies on 25-31 May.
Recently, 14 UK and international students (from as far afield as Bahrain, Ghana, India, Iraq, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Qatar) from the UK’s Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) paid a week-long visit to Poland. The visit was part of the students’ year-long course at the RCDS, where they study contemporary international issues with the aim of preparing students for senior positions in their national governments or militaries, where they may need to tackle and resolve complex security and political problems.
The RCDS students received a series of briefings in Warsaw (covering the political, economic, social, financial and legal situation in Poland) from British Embassy staff and Polish Government Ministries to help orientate them for the remainder of their visit, which followed on from similar visits to Russia, Estonia and Kaliningrad. Accompanied by the Defence Attaché, Group Captain David Houghton, the RCDS Team then spent 4 days touring industrial, technological and historic sites across Poland.
During their travels, the RCDS students met with a wide variety of Polish hosts, including industrial companies in Puławy, PhD students in Kraków, MP John Godson in Łódź, farmers near Bydgoszcz, Rolls-Royce in Gdynia and Members of Solidarity in Gdansk. They also had the opportunity to visit key historic sites, including the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.