DEJI: Nigerian Don, Fellow IORMS Present NATO New Directions at 17th Annual Conference in USA

Ronke Kehinde/

Solving national and international issues and ensuring a strong and stable future was part of the highlights at the 17th annual conference of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) held recently at Johns Hopkins University, USA. 

At the NATO family- gathering were key decision makers, top research experts, national defence analysts, research organisations, academia, and other stakeholders worldwide.

The operations, research, and analysis conference had representatives from all NATO Nations, NATO Bodies, NATO Agencies, Australia, Austria, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Accomplished Nigerian Don, Professor Adedeji Badiru, was a participant at the conference. He presented a paper titled: “Analytic Integration Model for Systems Optimization” which highlighted what he called the DEJI systems model: Design, Evaluation, Justification, and Integration in solving National and international issues.

Badiru, a fellow of Institute of Operational Research and Management Science of Nigeria (IORMS), also a Professor of Systems Engineering and Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering and Management at the USA Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), highlighted what he called a Triple C Application: Communication, Cooperation and Coordination as essential multidimensional communication.

The Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, General Philippe Lavigne, told the gathering that the conference was crucial for innovation, and focusing on defence and deterrence would ensure a strong and stable future for NATO.

The theme for this year is “Changing Character of Defence and Deterrence: The Power of Analysis”. It reflected the long-standing practice of Operations Research and Analysis in Defence, looked at combating ongoing challenges faced by the Alliance, as it looked further into the future to bring new methods to old challenges or well-established methods to future challenges.

“In a world where we are all operating under an avalanche of data, where resources are not without limit, we constantly require the provision of evidence-based advice to our political masters so that they can take decisions at the speed of relevance,” Lavigne said.