At their last summit in Brussels in June 2021, NATO leaders tasked the Secretary General with the elaboration of a new Strategic Concept, to be approved at the Alliance’s 2022 Madrid summit. This concept will draw on NATO’s 2030 agenda, and seek to prepare the Alliance for an increasingly uncertain and competitive strategic environment. What does this process bear for NATO’s engagement in the southern neighbourhood?
As recently underlined by the NATO 2030 report, NATO’s South is an area of conventional challenges and growing asymmetric threats. The Alliance has already agreed that it needs to engage further in the region. However, working out the terms of engagement requires a clearer understanding of regional dynamics, and their evolution over time.
As the Alliance transitions towards next year’s summit in Madrid, this Elcano event discussed the South’s evolving role in NATO’s strategic vision.
The event included a short presentation of the report ‘NATO and the south: A Tale of Three Futures’ which is the culmination of a two-year long project sponsored by NATO Sciences for Peace and Security Programme, where the Elcano Royal Institute leaded a consortium of three research institutes hailing from Jordan, Morocco and the United Kingdom.
Participants:
Opening session – Presentation of the report ‘NATO and the South: A Tale of Three Futures’
- Charles Powell, Director, Elcano Royal Institute | @CharlesTPowell.
- Luis Simón, NATO Project Director, Brussels Office, Elcano Royal Institute | @LuisSimn.
Roundtable
- David van Weel, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges | @davidvanweel.
- Cristina Gallach, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and for Ibero-America and the Caribbean, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Spain | @cristinagallach.
Moderated by Charles Powell, Director, Elcano Royal Institute
Friday, 16th July 2021, from 11:00 to 12:00 h. CEST (UTC+2)