Centre for European Perspective (CEP) and Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) are organizing a Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) within the framework of Europe’s New Training Initiative for Civilian Crisis Management (ENTRi) at the Police Training Centre Gotenica. Training is organized in close cooperation with Slovenian Police and Slovenian Armed Forces and will conclude on Friday evening.

19 participants from UN, OSCE and EU missions, other organisations, academia are taking part in it and the course therefore blends different security approaches and philosophies of different organisations, in order to allow participants to understand each other's perspectives and thereby enhance a multifunctional approach in the field.  The needs for this sort of training have increased dramatically over the past year.

The five day course started with Julian Harris's presentation on Secuity in The Field, risk and threat assessments, it was followed by orientation skills and communication presentation by Slovenian Police. It will continue tomorrow with effects of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) and risk of explosive remnants of war, 4x4 driving, evacuation planning, hostage survival, kidnap analysis and basic data security principles, basic first aid principles and management of threat related to gatherings, protests, demonstrations and riots as well as other topics related to individuals operating in medium or high risk areas.

The course is based on a mixture of theory and practical exercises, including role playing, to give the participants the tools needed to survive in hostile environments and deal with all levels of stress should they occur.