On 6 and 7 December, 2021 the NATO Defense College hosted the “Collegial View on the Strategic Concept” conference, aimed at generating ideas for NATO’s 2022 Madrid Summit, where a new Strategic Concept will be adopted.
The purpose of the event was to examine some of the critical issues addressed in the forthcoming Strategic Concept, identifying the main challenges confronting the Alliance and NATO’s possible responses.
The first panel on NATO’s political, conceptual and military evolution, featured Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero, former NATO Deputy Secretary General and MGEN (ret.) Gordon B. “Skip” Davis, former NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment. Next, GEN Denis Mercier, former Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and Hon. Marietje Schaake, Director, Cyber Policy Center, Stanford University, moderated by Antonio Missiroli, former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, and currently NDC non-resident associate fellow, discussed the opportunities and challenges facing NATO in an era of accelerating technological change. Ambassador Timo Koster, former NATO Director for Defence Policy and Capabilities; Robert Dresen, from the NATO HQ Policy Planning Unit; Professor Katarzyna Zysk, from the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies; Mauro Gilli, from the Centre for Security Studies, ETH-Zurich; and Helena Legarda, from MERICS, also spoke in subsequent panels.
Breakout sessions followed with three working groups, addressing three main drivers of change: China, technology and climate change. Each working group met twice, the first time to discuss the consequences of its assigned driver on collective defense and, the second, to discuss its consequences on both crisis management and cooperative security.
NDC Public Affairs Office
Collège de Défense de l'OTAN