PfP workshop on ‘Emerging Security Challenges’ at the NATO Defense College

On 12th and 13th March 2013, the NATO Defense College hosted the Partnership for Peace Consortium (PfPC) of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes in a meeting entitled “Emerging Security Challenges” Working Group (ESC WG).

The newly established ESC WG planned the two-day event with a view to assessing specific methodologies and subjects for further analysis, adding expertise in critical fields and, in addition, identifying and analysing the impact of new security challenges.

This event was co-chaired by Dr Detlef Puhl, Senior Advisor to the Emerging Security Challenges Division at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, and Dr Graeme Herd, Senior Programme Adviser and Senior Fellow to the Conflict Management Programme at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. They introduced the meeting’s aims and agenda to participants. Major items included: the setting out of criteria to classify emerging challenges and their impact on the security of society at large; raising awareness on the existence of these challenges; enhancing the knowledge-base and identifying subjects of potential concern, as well as laying the groundwork for further detailed assessments.

The workshop also provided an overview of the major challenges and opportunities facing the Alliance in the foreseeable future, and offered detailed perspectives to promote discussion and research on security issues and topics relevant to NATO in particular, and to the international security community as a whole.

During the two-day event, participants held detailed discussions on Strategic Security Trends and Future Analysis, on the exact nature of “Emerging Security Challenges”, and on emerging technologies and their securitization. There was also a plenary discussion, and the agenda for the forthcoming second edition of the workshop was set.

The PfPC of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes is a voluntary association of institutes of higher learning in defence and security affairs, founded in 1998 and based in 59 countries. Its fundamental aim is to strengthen democracy through a network of educators and researchers, developing concrete solutions to common challenges.

The home of the PfPC is in the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. It is headed by a Senior Advisory Council (SAC), whose Chairman is US Army Lt Gen (ret.) Keith W. Dayton.

NDC Public Affairs Office
(Prepared by Ms Francesca Blasi, ITA C)