Summary of the conference
December 2022
On Tuesday, November 29, COAJE held a new conference of the university debate cycle. This week, with the help of the Francisco de Vitoria University, we're talking about "International military actions involving Spain." On this occasion, we were joined by Ignacio Cosidó, a professor at Francisco de Vitoria University, and Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Elas of the Operations Command of the Defense Staff (Ministry of Defense).
The Lieutenant Colonel began by providing a technical explanation of the Armed Forces before providing an overview of Spanish activities abroad. First, he described how the JEMAD, a combined entity that lacks the resources to conduct operations but requests the ability to do so, serves as the focal point and chief of operations. Second, the operations command's operational structure consists of two branches: conducting operations on a national level and conducting operations internationally (follow-on operations in which Spain does not directly control its forces). The most operationally demanding operations are those of deterrence and defense or stability projection, which are also related to the level of operation intensity and the defense policy's goal.