SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED POWERS EUROPE
TALEO Job Number: 200891
Vacancy Number: A03/0121
Post Number: OSC GXCH 0010
Job Title: Historical Advisor
NATO Grade: A-3 / NATO Grade 17
Basic Monthly Salary (12 x per year): 6.854,04 €, tax free
Closing Date: Sunday 24 January 2021
SHAPE is looking for a full time professional Historian to
serve as an advisor and to
provide expertise on matters of historical aspects in the
context of strategic high-level
meetings, conferences, exercises and other decision-making.
If you have extensive
experience as a Historical Researcher and enjoy the
challenges of working in a dynamic
international environment, this post is for you.
GENERAL BACKGROUND:
SHAPE, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, is the
Headquarters of Allied
Command Operations (ACO), one of the two major military
commands of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). ACO safeguards an area
extending from the
northern tip of Norway to the eastern border of Turkey. This
equates to nearly two
million square kilometres of land, more than three million
square kilometres of sea, and a
population of about 320 million people.
POST DESCRIPTION:
Location: Casteau/Mons, 60 Km south of Brussels (Belgium)
Division: Office of Chief of Staff
Post Context/Post Summary
SHAPE is the strategic level command responsible for the
planning, preparation, conduct
and execution of NATO operations, missions, activities and
tasks as directed by Council
in order to achieve the strategic objectives of the
Alliance.
The Command Group (CG) provides and sustains strategic level
command and control
capabilities to support SACEUR in exercising his command
functions.
COS receives decisions of SACEUR. Directs, coordinates and
supervises all activities of
the SHAPE staff and ensures that the best and most timely
staff work is produced.
The Office of the Historical Advisor serves as ACO’s
strategic historical research and
advisory entity and is responsible for serving as the
institutional memory of plans,
operations and decisions within SHAPE and ACO.
The ACO Historical Advisor as SHAPE Command Group Advisor
reports to the Vice
Chief of Staff SHAPE and provides strategic historical
expertise and advice to the
SHAPE Command Group and ACO Commanders. The Advisor
determines processes
relating to historical research and expertise matters for
ACO and ensures the processes
are applied.
Principal Duties
The incumbent's duties are:
1) Function as principal of the Office of the Historical
Advisor as ACO's strategic
historical research and advisory entity that serves as the
institutional memory of plans,
operations, and decisions within SHAPE and ACO.
2) Provide advice to the Command Group (CG) on the whole
range of historical
issues and the historical context of current issues on own
initiative and in response to
CG tasking.
3) Provide expertise on matters of historical aspects in the
context of strategic high level meetings, conferences, exercises and other
decision-making.
4) Review historical information contained in CG speeches,
documents and
publications to ensure that they are accurate and that
sensitive historical issues are
handled in such a manner as to avoid controversy or embarrassment
to SHAPE/NATO.
5) Provide overall direction to and develop policies for the
ACO Historical
Programme, which includes issuing ACO-wide guidance on
determining the historical
significance of older records for preservation decisions,
preparing historical summaries of
the activities of SHAPE and ACO for future rapid reference,
and
downgrading/declassification decisions for ACO records.
6) Establish priorities for the work of the Office of the
Historical Advisor, determining
the balance between research requests and the preservation
of an accurate record of
SHAPE's decisions and actions.
7) Prepare detailed histories or staff papers on specific
subjects requested by the
CG, which requires developing research strategies, conducting
the research and then
writing the histories/staff papers.
8) Research and write Operational Diaries of NATO-led
operations, memoranda for
the record, briefing papers, and responses to taskers and
queries on historical issues
from the CG, SHAPE staff, higher/lower headquarters, and
other international
organisations.
9) Set priorities for and conduct an oral history program
consisting of recorded
interviews with senior officers and other senior officials
in order to obtain essential
information not always included in official documentation.
Interview other senior officers
in ACO as required.
10) Attend important staff meetings, briefings and
conferences.
11) Represent SHAPE and ACO at meetings of the NATO Archives
Committee when
historical issues, the question of access to ACO records and
ACO record
downgrading/declassification matters are involved.
12) Coordinate with force planners and nations to arrange
for deployment of field
historians to provide historical coverage of major NATO
operations and then provides
guidance to these field historians in collecting and
reporting historical data from their
theatres. Conduct staff visits to these operations as
required.
13) Assist staff officers and visiting official historians
from the member nations with
their research in SHAPE’s older records, and conduct
necessary coordination with
national authorities.
14) Meet with heads of historical offices of the NATO member
nations and convene
meetings of these officials to discuss issues of mutual
interest regarding NATO’s history.
15) Conduct downgrading/declassification reviews of older
SHAPE and ACO
documents, including those held in national archives;
respond to national requests for
declassification reviews of individual documents,
coordinating with National Military
Representatives (NMRs) and staff subject matter experts
where necessary.
16) Encourage Professional Military Development of assigned
SHAPE personnel
through increasing their knowledge of Military History.
17) Prepare historical displays to assist CG in celebrating
major SHAPE/ACO
anniversaries and other historical events.
18) Provide historical support to SACEUR initiatives.
19) Within the area of responsibility the incumbent is
responsible for ensuring that
strategic risk to the achievement of CG priorities are
managed in accordance with ACO
Enterprise Risk Management framework.
He/she holds the authority to make the final recommendation
on the release of ACO
information to third parties.
He/she decides on historical content to be released to the
public for various types of use
in NATO Nations and Partner Nations and takes part in
various committees.
Special Requirements and Additional Duties
The employee may be required to perform a similar range of
duties elsewhere within the
organization at the same grade without there being any
change to the contract.
Provide historical support to NATO Headquarters, which does
not have a historical office,
by providing historical advice, responding to queries and
preparing papers, lectures or
histories at the request of the NATO Archivist or the NAC.
The incumbent handles routine or special matters as directed
by the Vice Chief of Staff
and the Chief of Staff SHAPE.
The incumbent may be required to undertake deployments in
support of military
operations and exercises, and/or TDY assignments, both
within and without NATO
boundaries up to 30 days.
The risk of injury is categorised as: No risk / risk might
increase when deployed
The work is normally performed in a Normal NATO office
working environment.
Essential Qualifications
a. Professional/Experience
1) Minimum 4 years of recent experience in carrying out
historical research and
writing using archival materials, as evidenced by scholarly
publications and/or the
preparation of official histories and research papers.
2) Demonstrated success with development of policy, concepts
and strategic papers
and their implementation.
3) Minimum 2 years recent experience in a relevant position
involving managing and
leading teams in a dynamic environment.
4) Demonstrated experience in networking and coordination
with internal and
external stakeholders with positive impact on decision
making.
5) Proven experience of applying knowledge of historical
context of the 20th and
21st century in the international relations into
organizational environment.
6) Minimum 3 years experience in reporting to a high level
of authority.
b. Education/Training
University Degree in history, politics, economics,
operations research or related discipline
and 4 years post related experience, or Higher Secondary
education and completed
advanced vocational training in that discipline leading to a
professional qualification or
professional accreditation with 7 years post related
experience.
c. Language
English - SLP 3333 (Listening, Speaking, Reading and
Writing)
NOTE: The work both oral and written in this post and in
this Headquarters as a whole is
conducted mainly in English.
Desirable Qualifications
a. Professional Experience
Specialisations:
1) Additional professional training in history or related
fields, in particular an
advanced degree in history or international relations is
desirable for additional research
skills and effective interaction with advanced-degree
historians in national historical
offices and universities.
2) Extensive professional knowledge of the history of NATO
(research, teaching,
publications, lectures, etc.).
Specific Experience:
3) Familiarity with military staff procedures through
previous military or civilian
service at a senior headquarters.
4) Experience in an international organization.
b. Education/Training
1) PhD in History and/or International Relations.
c. Language
English - SLP 4444 (Listening, Speaking, Reading and
Writing)
French - SLP 3322 (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)
Attributes/Competencies
a. Personal Attributes
The post requires a high degree of initiative in
establishing policies and priorities.
Another requirement is considerable flexibility in order to
respond to the varied requests
for information from inside and outside of SHAPE, as well as
to prepare historical reports
that analyse and evaluate the wide range of issues being
worked by the SHAPE staff.
There is often a need to master complex new subject areas in
a very short time.
Preparing staff papers or entire histories on complex
subjects requires considerable
thought and judgement.
In order to gain essential but often sensitive information
from very senior officers and
officials, the historian must be able to inspire their trust
and confidence in his ability to
maintain confidentiality, and he must also exercise a high
degree of tact and judgement,
as well as polite perseverance, in conducting such
historical interviews.
b. Managerial Responsibilities
Manages the ACO wide process of downgrading and
declassification of ACO information
up to NATO CTS-A in close coordination with the NATO
Archivist and advises the
Command Group on options for decisions on such matters.
c. Professional Contacts
Has direct access to and close contact with SACEUR and the
other members of the
SHAPE Command Group, providing advice on own initiative or
in response to requests.
Represents ACO at meetings of the NATO Archives Committee
consisting of Deputy
Permanent Representatives and senior representatives of the
archives of the member
nations.
As the senior NATO historian, responds to historical queries
from the official history
offices of the member nations, from university professors
and students interested in the
history of NATO, and from the media (in coordination with
the Public Affairs Office) and
the general public.
Responds to outside requests to represent NATO by preparing
papers on the history of
NATO for scholarly conferences or serving as panel chair/commentator
at such
conferences, thereby interacting with university professors
and officials from inside and
outside of NATO.
The incumbent assists national archives with
downgrading/declassification reviews,
through the National Military Representatives.
He/she interacts closely with very senior civilian and
military officials from the NATO
member nations and other VIP visitors to SHAPE on occasions
of conferences,
exercises, and other high-level protocol events.
d. Contribution To Objectives
Makes a major contribution to the work of SHAPE, ACO, and
the Alliance as a whole by
establishing and carrying out all necessary procedures to
ensure that SHAPE and the
Alliance as a whole have an effective institutional memory
so that needed information
can be provided to the Command Group, SHAPE staff and other
bodies as quickly as
possible.
The Operational Diaries, chronologies of other key issues,
staff studies and histories
prepared by the Office of the Historical Advisor provide
information in response to
queries by the Command Group or higher headquarters that
would otherwise either be
unobtainable by the staff or would require a huge amount of
staff time and effort to
answer and thus could not be done on a timely basis.
The Office of the Historical Advisor products also prevent
duplication of work done in the
past, provide essential information needed by current staff
members and senior officers
for understanding current issues, and constitute an
invaluable record of the work of
SHAPE and ACO for use by future generations.
By serving as an advisor to SACEUR and other senior officers
on the historical
background of current issues, the ACO Historical Advisor
provides information that
influences the decisions and policies of SHAPE and also
helps avoid controversies or
embarassment to the Alliance that could otherwise arise from
sensitive historical issues.
By providing professional expertise in representing SHAPE
and ACO at NAC and NATO
Archives Committee meetings concerning archival and
declassification issues, the
Historical Advisor assists in the development of effective
NATO-wide policies.
He/she also contributes to NATO’s policy of openness by
reviewing older documents for
declassification and release, preparing unclassified papers
and studies, participating in
conferences about the history of NATO, and assisting the
work of government and
academic historians studying NATO's history.
This post reports to OSC GXCX 0010 - Chief Of Staff (COS)
e. Supervisory Responsibilities
Direct and supervise the work priorities of a major unit in
the HQ, providing professional
guidance and instruction to the staff of the organizational
element and to similar
elements in subordinate headquarters in ACO.
Provide general guidance and advice within the assigned
sub-functional area.
Dependent on requirements may be required to direct and
supervise the work priorities
of one or more HQ multifunctional teams.
Supervise the assigned staff of the Office of the Historical
Advisor (1xA2, 1xB3) and
temporary staff personnel.
Provide guidance to full-time and additional duty historians
and archivists at subordinate
headquarters and deployed on NATO operations.
REMARKS:
Duration of contract: Serving staff members will be offered
a contract according to the
NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations (NCPR). Newly recruited
staff will be offered a full
time, definite duration contract of three years normally
followed by an indefinite duration
contract.
Given the COVID19 situation the selection process for this
post will proceed in phases at
dates to be fixed according to the evolution of current
limitations. On-line testing /
interviewing might be considered.
HOW TO APPLY FOR A NATO CIVILIAN POST AT SHAPE:
Applications are to be submitted using NATO Talent
Acquisition Platform (NTAP)
(https://nato.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobsearch.ftl?lang-en).
Applications submitted by
other means (e.g. mail, e-mail, fax, etc) are not accepted.
NTAP allows adding attachments. A copy of the
qualification/certificate covering the
highest level of education required by the job description
must be provided as an
attachment.
Essential information must be included in the application
form. All answers should
be in English.
Shortlisted candidates will be requested to provide original
documentary evidence
supporting statements in their applications.
Remarks:
A) Only nationals from the 30 NATO member states can apply
for vacancies at
SHAPE.
B) Applications are automatically acknowledged within one
working day after
submission. In the absence of an acknowledgement please make
sure the submission
process is completed, or, re-submit the application.
C) Qualified redundant staff of the same grade interested in
this post should inform
this office, via their HR/Personnel Office by not later than
vacancy’s closing date.
