Defence and Security

As it reaches its sixtieth birthday, NATO is working towards a New Strategic Concept. What might this look like? How will NATO maintain its ability to perform the full range of its missions in the 21st Century: collectively defending our security at home and contributing to stability abroad? What is the significance for NATO of the new US Administration and France’s reintegration into the Alliance’s military structure? How can NATO address the hard security threats of the next decade while harmonising with the peacebuilding activities necessary to make its interventions effective in the long-term? Is NATO 'fit for purpose'?
Location: Wilton Park

Organised in partnership with the Royal United Services for Defence and Security Studies, this conference will address a range of critical questions relating to the effective delivery of maritime security. What is the evolving nature of risks and threats in the maritime environment? What are current gaps in the gathering, sharing and analysis of information concerning that environment, and how can those gaps be filled? How might bilateral, regional, and international legal frameworks for maritime security operations evolve? How can leading maritime powers and multinational organisations assist developing countries in building capacity for securing their coastal areas and Economic Exclusion Zones?
Location: Wilton Park

What role will China take in a rule-based international security system: free rider, freelancer or responsible stakeholder? What are the likely future patterns on China's military development, including those set out in the 2008 Defence White Paper? What role will China play in global security issues such as proliferation, terrorism and energy? What will China’s regional policy be in Africa, North East Asia, and Latin America? How will its bilateral relationship with the US be managed?
Location: Wilton Park

What are the points of commonality and divergence in national and multinational efforts to date to develop whole of government planning and execution in stabilisation operations? How important is it to improve these efforts? What are the challenges to taking whole of government planning and execution forward in a more effective way? How can these challenges be overcome? Is it possible to develop a civil-military strategic doctrine, for example?
Location: Wilton Park

With the expense of each generation of defence growing exponentially, how long can the UK sustain a national defence industrial base? Can Europe hope to compete with the US, or is a greater division of labour within the Transatlantic Alliance developing? What chance is there of implementing more efficient national defence procurement policies?
Location: Wilton Park

In what ways can international donor countries and organisations more effectively assist host nations and communities in strengthening local capabilities for establishing security and rule of law in early recovery and post-conflict environments? How can host nations most effectively use international assistance? How do host nation officials and experts regard the positive and negative roles of donor countries in establishing security and rule of law?
Location: Wilton Park

Has the European Union (EU)’s European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) met expectations? How will it evolve? Can the structural changed envisaged in the Lisbon Treaty still be introduced? Which ESDP missions have proved successful and which not? What lessons have been learned? How effective is parliamentary oversight of ESDP at European and Member State levels? Which capability shortfalls need to be addressed and how?
Location: Wilton Park

What are the risks of terrorists acquiring access to chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) Weapons through state-run Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programmes? How can Western governments best ensure such access is denied? What technologies are available to trace CBRN capabilities to the source of their production? What response options are available to policy-makers once terrorists use CBRN having received state assistance?
Location: Wilton Park