The Conference

Game changers

Security in a no one’s world?

13-14 February 2014

The world that is emerging today and will be the reality of tomorrow is shaped by accelerating change of all kinds—technological, economic, political and military. This exceptional set of challenges requires new tools for understanding and deciding. Like it or not, only those best equipped to cope effectively with novelty and change will survive and prosper.

This unprecedented change has brought with it an unprecedented degree of freedom. No one power is a true hegemon. Everyone—states and non-state actors, even individuals—can participate with different influences, values and interests. While some may share similar aspirations, others do not, and the pendulum of politics swings among competing forces. While we can grasp a sense of the world around us, having a true understanding of the big picture as well as understanding its regional issues is difficult.

This conference intends to clarify this big picture and its consequences for the existing web of international security arrangements and alliances, among which NATO, using the concept of game changers. The relevant ones for the debate are: the Alliance’s redeployment from Central Asia, an emerging energy revolution, the uncertain and difficult developments of the Arab Revolutions and the “Pivot to Europe” reflecting the necessity to redefine the transatlantic relationship also in view of the TAFTA negotiation. To each of these game changers a panel of the conference is devoted in order to ask the right questions and discuss their implications for the future.

The rationale of the last panel is to outline the main elements of a different organization of international security, filling the first lines in a chapter still unwritten, taking stock of the lessons learned and laying the bricks of a possible future security architecture, in which NATO will have a relevant and dynamic role.