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2011 Halifax International Security Forum

2011 Halifax International Security Forum

Date
November 18-20, 2011
Location
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Participants
300

Agenda & Speakers

Friday, November 18
Saturday, November 19
Sunday, November 20

9:00-10:15

Breakfast Sessions

Pakistan: Serial Proliferator or Serious Partner?

  • Mr. Francois Géré, Director, French Institute for Strategic Analysis
  • The Hon. Said Tayeb Jawad, Chief Executive Officer, Capitalize LLC
  • The Hon. Kurt Volker, Managing Director, International, BGR Group
  • MODERATOR: Mr. Ishaan Tharoor, Writer/Editor, TIME

 

Fixing the Fixable: Middle East Peace

  • The Hon. Said Abu-Ali, Minister of the Interior, Palestinian National Authority
  • Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Amos Gilad, Director of Policy and Political Military Affairs, Israel
  • MODERATOR: Mr. Randy Scheunemann, Owner and President, Orion Strategies

 

Hemispherics: The Americas in the World

  • Mr. Ian Brodie, Strategic Advisor, Inter- American Development Bank
  • Ms. Helga Flores Trejo, Nonresident Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center on the United States and Europe, The Brookings Institution
  • The Hon. Julian Ventura, Undersecretary for North American Affairs, Mexico
  • MODERATOR: Mr. Michael Werz, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

10:30-11:45

Plenary 7: My Kind of NATO?: Chicago 2012 On the record

Speakers

Reporter, CTV News Channel
Moderator
Ms. Mercedes Stephenson

Ms. Mercedes Stephenson

Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, NATO
Mr. James Appathurai

Mr. James Appathurai

Mr. James Appathurai was appointed deputy assistant secretary general (DASG) for NATO in December 2010. As DASG, he is responsible for NATO’s political relations with countries across the globe, international organizations, enlargement, arms control, and defense and security economics. As the Secretary General’s special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, he is responsible for carrying forward the Alliance’s policy in these two strategically important regions. Mr. Appathurai previously served as NATO’s spokesperson from 2004 to 2010. Previously, he served as deputy head and senior planning officer in the Policy Planning and Speechwriting Section of NATO’s Political Affairs Division from 1998 to 2004. He served in the Canadian Department of National Defence from 1994 to 1998.

Minister for International Security Strategy, Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom
The Hon. Gerald Howarth

The Hon. Gerald Howarth

The Honorable Gerald Howarth was appointed parliamentary under secretary of state for the Ministry of Defence with the title of minister for international security strategy. From 1971-1983, he worked in international banking with his last appointment as manager of syndicated lending at Standard Chartered Bank. From 1983-1992, he served as Conservative member of Parliament for Cannock & Burntwood during which time he was PPS to Michael Spicer at the Department of Energy and from 1991-1992 PPS to Margaret Thatcher. In 1997 he was elected member of Parliament for Aldershot and served on the Home Affairs Select Committee and the Defence Select Committee. From 2002-2010, he served as a shadow defence minister with responsibility for defence procurement and the Royal Air Force. He holds a B.A. in English from the University of Southampton, where he also served with the university air squadron.

Founder and President, Project on Transitional Democracies
Mr. Bruce Jackson

Mr. Bruce Jackson

Mr. Bruce Jackson is the founder and president of the Project on Transitional Democracies, a multi-year endeavor aimed at accelerating the pace of reform in post-1989 democracies and advancing the date for the integration of these democracies into the institutions of the Euro-Atlantic. From 1979 to 1990, Mr. Jackson served in the United States Army as a military intelligence officer. He also worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and served as a vice president for strategy and planning at Lockheed Martin Corporation. Mr. Jackson also served as president of the U.S. Committee on NATO. He has been recognized for his work on democratic change and European integration by numerous governments and has written extensively on the engagement of Russia and Eastern European democracies by the EU and the US.

Panelists engaged in a spirited discussion around the future of NATO, giving consideration to its leadership role in the Libyan mission, and paying attention to the issue of how non-contributing members view the alliance. They also spoke the organization’s value to the world.

Panelists also discussed some of the big questions and important issues that will need to be addressed at the 2012 summit in Chicago—especially around the cooperation of established and emerging democracies, and their dedication to the alliance.

12:15-13:30

Plenary 8: It’s That Time: Sharing Global Responsibility On the record

Speakers

Washington Editor-at-Large for The Atlantic and Editor-in-Chief of AtlanticLIVE
Moderator
Mr. Steve Clemons

Mr. Steve Clemons

Mr. Steven Clemons is senior fellow of the American Strategy Program, which he founded, at the New America Foundation. He previously served as executive vice president and remains actively involved in the direction of the American Strategy Program. Mr. Clemons is also Washington editor at large for The Atlantic and editor in chief of Atlantic LIVE. He has served as executive vice president of the Economic Strategy Institute, senior policy advisor on economic and international affairs to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and the first executive director of the Nixon Center. Prior to moving to Washington, Mr. Clemons served as executive director of the Japan America Society of Southern California and co-founded the Japan Policy Research Institute. Mr. Clemons serves on several boards and writes frequently on matters of foreign policy, defense, and international economic policy.

Editorial Director, India Today
Mr. Mobasshar Javed Akbar

Mr. Mobasshar Javed Akbar

Mr. Mobashar Jawed Akbar is editorial director of India Today and Headlines Today. Since 1971, Mr. Akbar has worked as a journalist for several publications, including the Times of India, Sunday, The Telegraph, The Asian Age—which he founded—and Deccan Chronicle. In 2010, he launched The Sunday Guardian, Delhi’s first Sunday newspaper. He also served in the Indian Parliament from 1989 to 1991 and worked as an as advisor in the Ministry of Human Resources. Mr. Akbar served as a visiting fellow on the Brookings Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World. He holds a B.A. in English from Presidency College, Calcutta.

Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Mr. Hakan Altinay

Mr. Hakan Altinay

Mr. Hakan Altinay is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, where he works on questions of constituency building and normative frameworks for enhanced global cooperation and governance. In his book, Global Civics: Responsibilities and Rights in an Interdependent World, Mr. Altinay and others argue that the web of cross-border interactions and interdependencies have become too thick to manage without a draft global social contract. In 2009, he was a World Fellow at Yale University. He was also the founding executive director of the Open Society Institute and the Open Society Foundation in Turkey, where he is currently the chairman of the board.

Ambassador for Policy Planning and International Security Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan
The Hon. Masafumi Ishii

The Hon. Masafumi Ishii

The Honorable Masafumi Ishii is the ambassador for policy planning and international security policy and deputy director-general in the Foreign Policy Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A career member of the Ministry, he joined the Foreign Service in 1980 and has since served in a number of positions, including director of the Planning Division, director of The Second Southeast Asian Division, and private secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Ishii was posted in Japan’s embassies in Washington and London, serving in both as minister and head of the political section. He holds a degree in law from the University of Tokyo.

Senior Counselor for Foreign Affairs and Defense, Senate of Brazil
Dr. Joanisval Brito Gonçalves

Dr. Joanisval Brito Gonçalves

Dr. Joanisval Brito Gonçalves is a lawyer and a senior counselor on foreign affairs and defense in the Senate of Brazil and the only technical advisor on intelligence for the Brazilian Joint Committee on Intelligence Oversight. He holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Brasilia. Before serving in the legislative branch, he was an intelligence officer at the Brazilian Intelligence Agency. Dr. Brito Gonçalves is a lecturer on intelligence and security issues at the Brazilian War College, the Brazilian Army Military Intelligence School, the Navy’s Intelligence Center, the Air Force Intelligence Center and the Federal Police Directorate of Intelligence. In 2006, he was was a visiting fellow at the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies, at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Closing out this year’s Forum, panelists shared their thoughts on what the emergence of new and growing democracies means for the international community. Rising powers such as Brazil, India and Japan, among others, can be seen as new and exciting allies of Western leaders, but questions were raised about how much these countries would be willing to contribute to international security.

A dominating theme of the discussion was how emerging and established democracies might gain a better understanding of each other’s roles and abilities in creating a more secure world.

“What Libya showed us is that when it comes to commanding an operation of that size, there is no other door to knock on. [Libya has shown us] that the balance of leadership in the organization is evolving.”

— Mr. James Appathurai

“It can’t be left to the ‘hard-core’ nations to bear the weight…It will be a major challenge, above all else, to get the commitment of all the members to play their part, and not rely disproportionately on other members.”

— The Honorable Gerald Howarth

“In Chicago, we have to talk about succession planning—the next Secretary General must have huge budgetary confidence. We have to have an eventful and substantive summit.”

— Mr. Bruce Jackson

“We have started preparation for sending troops to South Sudan as part of peace keeping operations…and we will soon send about 300 construction units. That is what a country like Japan can do. Those missions need divisions of labor, and that is where I think rising powers can and do contribute.”

— The Honorable Masafumi Ishii

…Some numbers about Brazil: 80.5 million square kilometers, 190 million people, we’re the fifth largest country in the world, and we must now realize that we are in the world scenario, acting as an emergent power. Our areas and field of interest are South America and Africa, and we continue to consider what Brazil’s role in the world will be…We have spent $100 million in development both inside Brazil and outside of Brazil.”

— Dr. Joanisval Brito Gonçalves

“Strategic partnerships are not built on the basis of common friendships, it are build on the basis of common enemies…India just signed strategic partnerships with Japan, Vietnam—our relationship with Australia has taken a quantum leap—and a treaty partnership with Afghanistan—all within the last four months. In terms of India playing actively in both the East and West regions, in harmony with America, it is an era that is just beginning.”

— Mr. MJ Akbar

In Pictures

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