Next year will see the launch of an important new annual roundtable on transatlantic defence and industrial policy. This will draw upon a series of teleconferenced debates beginning in April 2008 and leading up to a mid-2009 meeting of top EU and US defence decision-makers from government and industry, probably to be held in Washington DC.
The Transatlantic Defence Dialogue is a joint initiative of the Brussels-based Security and Defence Agenda (SDA) and the Atlantic Council of the United States (ACUS).
The Transatlantic Defence Dialogue is a response to calls in Europe and America for a more positive and sustained debate across the Atlantic on issue ranging from industrial cooperation, the tackling of trade and investment barriers and the revitalization of collective security instruments.
The SDA and ACUS have devised the new Dialogue as the framework for transatlantic debate on defence issues, with a strong emphasis on industrial policies. The two partners initially plan three joint events between April and September 2008, and intend to build on these in the months leading up to next year’s major mid-year event.
The teleconferenced back-to-back events will be on such topics as the nature of future conflict, the economic value of defence technologies, burden-sharing within the EU and across the Atlantic, and export controls and licensing.