NATO in the Next Decade

International Conference

Tuesday, June 03, 2008 - Cercle Royal Gaulois, Brussels

8:15 - 9:00	Registration & Welcome Coffee

9:00 - 11:00	Globalisation and NATO's future partnerships

Over 60 nations now contribute to the NATO effort in Afghanistan, and terrorism tops most countries’ security agendas. NATO’s drive to build global partnerships should therefore be easier than is so far the case. Should these extended partnerships be re-fashioned to help NATO tackle newer challenges like energy, cyber and maritime security? And what of NATO’s relations with Russia? It’s been almost 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell, and with missile defence wrangling and overflight incursions it sometimes seems the Cold War never ended. What happened to the 1997 Russia-NATO agreement in Paris on a new era of mutual relations? Opening address: Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO Secretary General Moderators: Giles Merritt, Director, Security & Defence Agenda Speakers: Lazăr Comănescu, Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pieter De Crem, Belgian Minister of Defence Benoît d’Aboville, Advisor, French Foreign Ministry Planning Centre and Member of the Commission for the French Defence White Paper on Defence and National Security Dmitry Rogozin, Ambassador, Mission of the Russian Federation to NATO

11:30 - 13:00	Security strategies and doctrines - what the key players think

Europe’s foremost defence powers are pondering future security strategies, but there are fundamental differences in their political cultures. Where do their strategies come together, and how well do they fit with NATO and EU thinking? With France set to re-join NATO’s military structure and Britain giving cautious backing to the EU’s growing defence role, what are the prospects of a new European defence doctrine giving the EU a more pro-active global security role? Where would that leave Germany’s 2006 White Paper which stresses non-military preventive engagement and what should be expected of a new strategic concept from the next US Administration? Moderator: Richard Norton-Taylor, Security Editor, The Guardian Speakers: Alyson Bailes, Visiting Professor, University of Iceland Ulrich Brandenburg, Ambassador of Germany to NATO Anne-François de Saint Salvy, Deputy Director of the Delegation for for Strategic Affairs, French Ministry of Defence Bernard Jenkin, MP, Member of the UK House of Commons Defence Select Committee Closing Remarks: Peter Weilemann, European Office Director, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung

13:00 - 14:30	Lunch

14:30 -16:00	Transatlantic differences: will the US always be NATO's bedrock?
The Iraq and Afghanistan theatres have in their different ways demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of NATO members. They are also widely seen as having redefined Washington’s commitment to the collective disciplines of the alliance. How widely shared is the message that overpowering military technology doesn’t hold the key to counter-insurgency and peacekeeping operations? Is NATO entering a new era in which the US will view it as an optional device for grouping its allies, rather than as the basis of its own security? Opening address: Robert J. Stevens, Chairman, President & CEO, Lockheed Martin Moderator: Rob Watson, Defence & Security Correspondent, BBC World Service Speakers: Stefanie Babst, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, NATO Igor Slobodník, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Slovak Republic W. Bruce Weinrod, US Secretary of Defense Representative, Europe