FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2 October 2013

WASHINGTON, DC – The Halifax International Security Forum today released the draft Topical Agenda for this year’s event that will be held November 22 – 24 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

“This agenda, for the fifth annual Halifax International Security Forum, reflects the challenges that democratic nations are facing this year,” said Peter Van Praagh, President of the Halifax International Security Forum.

The Halifax International Security Forum brings together individuals who are on the ground facing consequential local threats, writers who challenge and influence the world’s thinking on security, and decision-makers who make the tough choices. To ensure that the agenda is timely and relevant to all of its participants from around the world, the final version of the Halifax Agenda will be released just prior to the Forum.

Halifax International Security Forum is a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Washington, DC.

DRAFT TOPICAL AGENDA

Plenary Sessions (On-the-Record)

· The West Today: Calculated Power or Complete Paralysis?

· Bloody Autocracy, Religious Kleptocracy, Unstable Democracy: In Search of Better Choices for the Middle East (and Beyond)

· If Democracies Won’t, Alternatives Will: Reviving Global Responsibility

· From India to the Americas: The Trials and Tribulations of a New Pacific Order

· Robot Wars: The Technology Strikes Back

· Arctic Encounters: Hot Commodities, Cold War

· Free Radicals (With Return Tickets): Boston, Nairobi, and the Future of Terrorism

· WMD: Whose Moral Dilemma?

Small Group Sessions (Off-the-Record)

· Afghanistan 2014: Withdrawal Symptoms

· African Security: Where is the Next Mali?

· Climate Change as Background Music?

· Is Cyber Offense the Best Cyber Defense?

· Dangerous Liaisons: Relying on Corrupt Allies

· @DigitalDiplomacy #Really?

· Drone: On

· Egypt: Mummified Democracy

· Global Energy Security

· Guns and Butter: Development as Defense?

· Europe’s East: Promise Fulfilled or Promise Denied

· Impotent or Important: Europe’s Role in Global Security

· Iran: New Face, Old Regime?

· Japan’s Abe, Abe’s Japan

· Leading Latins: Up and Coming in the Western Hemisphere

· Middle East Peace: More Process or Real Prospects?

· Merkel’s Germany

· Multilateralism Today: Who Are the Cooks? Where is the Kitchen?

· North Korea: What Do We Know?

· Nuke-Free or Nuke-Full? Disarmament vs. Proliferation

· Pakistan and the West: Friends Without Benefits?

· Russia: Bear With Us (Or Against Us)

· Peaking China: The Shrinking Rise

· “Siri, How Do I Save the World?”: Technology in a Crisis

· Space: Big Enough for All of Us?

· Syria, Syria

· Trade as a Weapon: The Art of Economic Statecraft

· Turkey at 90: The Future of the Secular Republic

· What Future for Deterrence?

· Yes We Scan: Privacy and/or Security in a Democracy

For more information on the Halifax International Security Forum please contact Jay Paxton and our communications team at: communications@halifaxtheforum.org