New Challenges - Better Capabilities

27.11.2009 13:29

Summary of Proceedings

Compiled by:  Jana Prochotská, Andrea Ferjenčíková and Michal Kardoš

11.11.2009 18:53

NCBC Conference in Media

NEW CHALLENGES - BETTER CAPABILITIES Conference in Slovak and Foreign Media

10.11.2009 17:01

NCBC 6th Panel Speeches: New Nuclear Disarmament Proposals: Implications for NATO and the Transatlantic Relations

Tomáš Valášek: Ladies and gentlemen, excelencies, my name is Tomáš Valášek. I suspect most of you have already seen or heard me, I chaired the panel yesterday. I am the board member od the Slovak Atlantic Commission, in my dayjob I’m in London at the Centre for European Reform. Bratislava, Slovakia may be seen like an odd place to be discussing nuclear weapons, we haven’t got any. But that does not mean we do not think about them and it does not mean that we don’t think through the consequences of the decisions of the big ones like United States, like France or Britain. We do. So when President Obama announced in April of this year that the United States wants to get rid of its nuclear weapons and would like to see a world free of nuclear weapons that applies to the Chinese, Russians and everybody else, at least four implications came to mind right away.

10.11.2009 16:45

NCBC 5th Panel Speeches: NATO’s Military Transformation: Operations and Capabilities Development

Jamie Shea: We have had some good warm up introduction and a lot of issues have come up and obviously the conclusion always is - we need more and more capabilities with fewer and fewer resources. The circle has never been easier to square but it´s getting harder all the time so it would be very interesting point ladies and gentleman if you come forward with questions, if you had any good solutions for us, how we sort of manage to acquire those key capabilities without declining budgets. Questions are excellent, but solutions are even better.

10.11.2009 16:14

NCBC 4th Panel Speeches: The Impact of Economic Crises on European Defence Budgets

Quentin Peel: My name is Quentin Peel and I am International Affairs editor of the Financial Times. I’m delighted to be here in Bratislava, for which I confess is the first ever time and it is wonderful to be here at such a splendid conference. We have a rather gloomy subject to discuss - the impact of the economic crisis on European defence budgets. It has been long with American friends on the other side as Europeans with their defence budgets useless, miserable, half-baked and far less than they should be.

8.11.2009 19:41

NCBC 3rd Panel Speeches: What is the Future of NATO/EU Relations with Russia?

Edward Lucas: Welcome to this afternoon session on NATO and the EU relations with Russia. My name is Edward Lucas, I am a journalist at The Economist magazine which has its own views on these issues. But today, I am going to be strictly neutral because you have come to hear not me but a very distinguished panel. You can read the biographies here, so I am not going to waste time, just reading the type. We have a really first class line up from people who offered the countries that matter and with biographies that had given great inside into this.

8.11.2009 18:36

NCBC 2nd Panel Speeches: Cyber Security as a Challenge for NATO

Tomáš Valášek: My name is Tomáš Valášek, I am director of foreign policy and defence at the Centre for European Reform in London and also a member of the Board of the Slovak Atlantic Comission, which has put together this conference and it is my pleasure to chair our second panel of the day on cyber security as a challenge for NATO. Last Friday, on a very cold, sleepy morning in Luxemburg, twelve men and women, the Experts Committee writing the new Strategic Concept got together for the first time to start works on a document.

8.11.2009 18:17

NCBC 1st Panel Speeches: NATO’s Strategic Concept 60 Years On: What Is Today’s Meaning of Article 5?

Pavol Demeš: Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is really an honour to welcome all of you in Bratislava. My name is Pavol Demeš and I work for the German Marshall Fund, running in Bratislava office since 2000. For those of you who do not know the place where we are now. Before and shortly after the Velvet revolution this was the main plenary hall of Slovak Parliament. Shortly after we needed bigger one and now parliament is on the hill next to the castle.

24.10.2009 20:35

Opening Address by the Minister of Defence Jaroslav Baška

24.10.2009 20:16

Opening Address by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajčák

23.10.2009 18:28

Conference Headlines

22.10.2009 15:53

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen: "Vision of NATO in the Changing Security Environment"

Speech by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the Bratislava Security Conference

22.10.2009 15:12

Ambassador Alexander R. Vershbow: “Crafting the new Strategic Concept: Ambitions, Resources, and Partnerships for a 21st Century Alliance”

Keynote speech

22.10.2009 09:42

3rd Panel Headlines: What is the Future of NATO/EU Relations with Russia?

Eugeniusz Smolar: Compromise can be quite far reaching with one proviso: No one can compromise on values.

21.10.2009 18:03

2nd Panel Headlines: Cyber security as a Challenge for NATO

H.E. Jaak Aaviksoo: Cyber space is its own medium with its own rules.

21.10.2009 15:47

1st Panel Headlines: NATO’s Strategic Concept 60 Years On: What Is Today’s Meaning of Article 5?

H.E. Imants Liegis: And I think its right that the events of 9/11 helped to clarify the meaning of Article 5.

21.10.2009 15:34

Official Opening Headlines

H. E. Jaroslav Baška: New and emerging threats coming predominantly out of NATO territory create new needs and requirements not only for military but also for civilian capabilities of NATO member states.

21.10.2009 12:27

The security conference in Bratislava will be brodcasted LIVE

Informal security conference taking place on wednesday and thursday in Bartislava will be broadcasted live via internet. Wider public will be able to watch the discussions with key personalities of international politics.

20.10.2009 21:28

European defence budgets undermined by the financial crisis. The solution will be sought in Bratislava

NATO Defence ministers will open the discussion on the issue of defence budgets that face unprecedented pressure in numerous countries based on the financial and economic crisis. Defence budgets are the first to be cut down, when it comes to reducing of public finances. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen assumes that the Bratislava meeting and the conference will at least partially give an answer to the questions of defence financing and common missions.

20.10.2009 21:25

Success of the Afghanistan mission is at the crossroads. Next step to be decided in Bratislava

Significant figures of the international security will arrive to Bratislava to participate in the Bratislava conference and subsequent informal NATO Defence Ministers Meeting. As the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has informed, the future progress of the allies in Afghanistan will be in the centre of attention in Bratislava.

20.10.2009 21:22

Experts on the relations with Russia will meet in Slovakia

Experts specialized in relations with Russia will arrive to Bratislava in order to participate on „New Challenges – Better Capabilities“, security conference which takes place during the informal meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Bratislava. In the framework of the panel entitled “The future of the relations between NATO, EU and Russia“ experts will discuss their views on mutual cooperation.

20.10.2009 21:19

Estonian Minister of Defence is going to talk about cyber terrorism at the conference in Bratislava

Estonian Minister of Defence Jaak Aaviksoo is going to deliver a speech dealing with the significance of common defence against the cyber terrorism at tomorrow’s security conference in Bratislava. Estonia had to deal with the severe consequences of the cyber attack two years ago, which paralyzed the life in the country for a few days. According to the planned digitalization of the public administration is this question utmost accurate in Slovakia.

20.10.2009 21:04

On Wednesday, the greatest security conferece is about to begin

For a couple of days, Bratislava is going to be the centre of the global security discussion this week. An important accompanying conference will be held within the informal NATO Defence Ministers Meeting as well. Besides the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the Supreme Allied Commander Europe Admiral Stavridis, number of NATO Defense Ministers, Ambassadors to the NATO, senators, and members of parliament of the Central European countries, well-known analysts from Europe and the United States as well as journalists from popular media such as The Economist or The Financial Times will be attending. Thereby, the elite of the international security community will come together.

17.10.2009 22:41

Info-graphics to the "New Challenges - Better Capabilities" Conference

Exceptional security conference in Bratislava will be broadcasted live online on www.ncbc.sk.  The hottest security affairs will be discussed on 21st and 22nd October 2009 by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Minister of Defence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Eimert van Middelkoop, American Defence Secretary Assistant Alexander Vershbow, NATO defence ministers, ambassadors, prominent domestic and foreign analysts.

17.10.2009 22:26

An Agenda for NATO - Toward a Global Security Web

Author: Zbigniew Brzezinski.  NATO’s 60th anniversary, celebrated in April with pomp and circumstance by the leaders of nearly 30 allied states, generated little public interest. NATO’s historical role was treated as a bore. In the opinion-shaping media, there were frequent derisive dismissals and even calls for the termination of the alliance as a dysfunctional geostrategic irrelevance. Russian spokespeople mocked it as a Cold War relic.

17.10.2009 17:50

Monthly press conference by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

I would like to address three main topics today. First, Afghanistan. As you know we are now in the process of studying General McChrystal's assessment. It is under discussion in the Military Committee and in the NATO Council. These have been initial discussions, and we reached no conclusions yet, but I can say that the exchange of views on approach has now fully begun.

12.10.2009 20:27

World-known persons will gather at the security conference in Bratislava

High-profile persons of world politics will attend one of the biggest international security conferences in the history of Slovakia. Bratislava will welcome several defence ministers, permanent representatives to NATO, U. S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, advisor to the Russian president and well-known analysts and experts both from Europe and America

9.10.2009 17:28

Transatlantic Partnership Under the Obama Administration

By the time of the G-8 Summit in Italy in July, President Obama will have visited Europe three times within the first six months of his Presidency.  This unprecedented mileage across the Atlantic at the start of an American Presidency is a concrete demonstration of the possibilities of the transatlantic partnership under the Obama Administration.  Against the backdrop of the Administration’s emphasis on consultations and multilateralism, and Obama’s tremendous popularity throughout Europe, the future of U.S-European relations appears bright.

6.10.2009 14:12

Obama's missile defense change shows different targets

Will the scrapped missile defense base soothe or incite Russia while defending against Iranian threat? LONDON: Washington rankled some of its European allies and delighted Moscow on September 17 when president Obama cancelled plans to build missile defense bases in the Czech Republic and Poland. The decision makes practical sense – the bases “were to use unproven technology against a threat that does not yet exist,” as Zbigniew Brzezinski put it.

2.10.2009 22:18

Bratislava will become a centre of the world security discussions for a couple of days

A conference entitled ”New Challenges – Better Capabilities” will take place as a part of informal NATO  Defence Minister Meeting in Bratislava with the aim to initiate discussion about international and security questions. Key representatives of NATO, its member countries as well as high-profile experts from the international security community will therefore gather in Bratislava.

25.1.2009 20:08