The influential Annual Baltic Conference on Defence (ABCD) was held in Tallinn, Estonia, on September 19–20, bringing together international high-level military officials, policymakers and experts for intense discussions on defence and security issues.
The influential Annual Baltic Conference on Defence (ABCD) was held in Tallinn, Estonia, on September 19–20, bringing together international high-level military officials, policymakers and experts for intense discussions on defence and security issues.
25.09.2012
The influential Annual Baltic Conference on Defence (ABCD) was held in Tallinn, Estonia, on September 19–20, bringing together international high-level military officials, policymakers and experts for intense discussions on defence and security issues.
The ABCD 2012 was titled “European Security and Defence at a Strategic Crossroads” and its keynote speakers included Admiral James G. Stavridis, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander of US European Command, and Rt. Hon. Liam Fox, Member of Parliament and former UK Secretary of State for Defence.
The conference was opened on the evening of September 19 by Estonian Minister of Defence Urmas Reinsalu and Director of the International Centre for Defence Studies (ICDS) Matthew J. Bryza.
This year’s conference examined the major shifts that have occurred in the security environment over the last ten years since the September attacks in 2001 to analyse their implications for Europe and to try to forecast the key changes and challenges that we would have to face over the next ten years in the field of security (see also http://abcd.icds.ee/).
The main discussion sessions were held on September 20 with the participation of former Polish Minister of National Defence Bogdan Adam Klich, former Lithuanian Minister of National Defence Linas Linkevičius, Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces Brigadier General Riho Terras, Major General Kjell-Ove Skare from the Defence Staff of the Norwegian Armed Forces and Major General (ret.) Heinrich Brauss, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Policy and Planning at the Defence Policy and Planning Division at NATO HQ. Analysts and think-tanks were represented, inter alia, by Colonel (ret.) Thomas X. Hammes, Senior Research Fellow at the National Defense University in Washington, and Rob de Wijk, Director of The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies.
The ABCD was conceived as a regional forum for intellectual debate on defence issues pertinent to NATO and the EU. Over the years, a wide range of high-level military officials, influential policymakers and members of the international security and defence community, experts and media representatives have participated in the conference.
The inaugural conference was held in 2006 and the first three ABCDs were all hosted by the Baltic Defence College (BALTDEFCOL). Since 2010, the ABCD has been jointly organised by ICDS and the Estonian Ministry of Defence.