For the Networking group, the English Department organized two zoom meetings with the Australian War College.

Prior to the event, the Networking officers brainstormed, mind-mapped, outlined, gave timed speeches and role-played unpredictable questions and answers with timed drills to gain comfort with public speaking. They also critiqued one another in real-time until they felt comfortable enough. During the first session, the Australian presentation covered their strategic contexts and partnerships. They also briefly presented their "Strategic Drivers" as well as their strategic environmental concerns about "Great power competition" and their resulting need for a defence security update to re-shape their strategic environment. They also presented the Australian strategy regarding Antarctica. Lastly and briefly, they explained their current and historical military exercises with France. During the second session, the French presentation focused on French capabilities, but also on the geopolitical strategy used in Europe and with NATO concerning the conflict in Ukraine. It appeared to help the Australian officers understand the geopolitical situation in its totality and therefore allowed them to imagine how a similar conflict could happen in their neighbouring region of the INDOPAC.

Overall, this event greatly increased interoperability because it provided an opportunity to expand the officers' situational awareness & adaptability regarding diplomatic relations between France and Australia which requires the group to clearly define and constantly adapt their public speaking strategies. This was also a great opportunity to prepare the officers to high-responsibilities posts in environments where discussing in English will be a mandatory constant. Overall, these engagements with the Australian War College were very impressive and enriching due to the high-level questions asked by the Australians, which were surprisingly covering not just military inquiries but also political or diplomatic stakes.

The English Department planned a Log Gym session. Indeed, the officers of the Comparative Leadership Programme endured a trial of body and mind in the framework of their challenge to define embodiment of leadership. As part of this larger study of leadership, the officers were asked to participate in the Log Gym in the spirit of interoperability, so they could inform each other and push the thinking further. Traditional theories of leadership have rarely included the notion of embodiment. Mental resilience and challenges are as important as physical resilience and challenges. So why is it absent fr0m the discussions on leadership?

Thanks to the French-American Foundation, the Networking group of the English Department attended the French-American Breakfast with Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman to become Attorney General of the United States, now a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP. The event was organised by the French American Foundation-France. Loretta Lynch addressed the question of financial fraud and cyber criminality as well as racial equity. Beyond these key insights, the officers engaged with corporate senior executives fr0m both sides of the Atlantic. A great opportunity for military officers to enhance their public speaking skills and to share their various experiences.

As French representative to the NATO Bureau of International Language Coordination, the Direction de l'enseigement militaire supérieur (DEMS) took part in its annual professional development seminar. Ms Emilie, head of the English Studies Department for DEMS and Mr Jérôme, head of the French Language Department both presented to the audience or participants representing 23 countries.

Ms Emilie presented practical examples of extracurricular and paralinguistic activities for advanced learners as motivation boosters for adult learners that lie in the nexus between in situ experience and paralinguistic communication that enhances knowledge and skill acquisition. Learning in transformative theory involves a change in each individuals’ meaning structures through the practice of critical self-examination. This means accepting that past assumptions need to be assessed, reviewed critically and their validity checked.

Mr Jérôme presented on the concept of "socio-linguistic transposition". The use of the STANAG 6001 standard requires, in order to be used for the evaluation of another language than English (here for French), a systematic socio-linguistic transposition. The official translation of the standard into French is only a translation. In order to be applied to French, an exhaustive re-reading of the standard is necessary. Remarks of a socio-linguistic nature are therefore necessary to make a good transposition fr0m English to languages other than English. This could lead to a "reading guide of the standard ", adapted to each language. This reading guide is currently being developed for the French language.