Honorable Ms. Carmela Conroy, the Political and Economic Affairs Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, visited NATO’s Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) on Thursday 18 October.
Upon arrival, she was greeted by French Army Major General Jean-Fred Berger, Commander JWC, and key members of his staff for an office call and a working lunch.
In a busy programme, Ms. Conroy received a series of comprehensive briefings on the structure, mission and current activities of the Centre. Discussion focused on JWC’s capabilities, its training and exercise programme with a particular focus on the function of the Grey Cell within the Exercise Control (EXCON) organization.
Ms. Conroy then toured JWC’s state-of-the-art training facility, which is NATO’s leading site to use virtualization and information technology during the operational level exercises run by the Centre, as well as the fully equipped TV studio that supports both exercises and real world events.
To complete the visit, Ms Conroy gave a lecture to the JWC staff about the complex challenges of international security with special focus on her experiences while serving in Afghanistan and, most recently, in Pakistan.
Honorable Conroy served as Principal Officer at the Consulate General of the United States in Lahore from August 2009 to September 2011. Prior to that assignment, she was the refugee coordinator for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul from August 2008 to July 2009. She was also the special advisor to the Commander of the New Zealand-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Bamyan, Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005.
Honorable Conroy’s other assignments include the Head of the Political and Military Section at the Consulate General of the United States in Naha, Okinawa, Japan from 2005 to 2008.
Honorable Conroy was assigned to her current position at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo in August 2012 and she speaks Japanese and Norwegian fluently. She has earned seven U.S. Department of State Superior or Meritorious Honor Awards and an Agency Seal Award from the Central Intelligence Agency.