Kissinger opens conference on global security

Dr Henry Kissinger is to give the keynote speech at a conference on global security in London on Tuesday 27 June.

Other speakers include Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, Prince Turki Al Faisal (Saudi Arabia), HE Omar Ghobash (UAE), Senator Joe Liberman, Moshe Ya’alon (Israel), former NATO chief Lord Robertson, former director of GCHQ Richard Hannigan and former chief of defence staff Lord Richards.

The 2017 Margaret Thatcher Conference on Security, at the Guildhall, London, is organised by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS). The full schedule, speakers and topics can be found on the conference website.

The conference comes at a key time. The West is devoid of answers to the questions of how to deal with ISIS, Syria and the wider Middle Eastern crisis, asymmetric warfare and immigration. Domestically we are now enduring the threat from terrorism.

Should the West intervene in the Middle East, North Korea and elsewhere? How should NATO – created as a defensive alliance – adapt to cyberspace conflict, a domain of operations that it only recognised last July? How should Western nations respond to the new wave of terrorism?

CPS director Tim Knox said:

“With victory in the Cold War, the west thought it had won the argument. Democracy was the victor.

“We were wrong.  New conflicts sprung up across Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East, which led Tony Blair and others to try, unsuccessfully, to develop the Chicago Doctrine, a new internationalist theory of moral military intervention.

“Despite early success in operations such as Sierra Leone, the cream quickly curdled. The west did not succeed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The result today is moral and political stasis. Our foes realise that we have lost self-confidence in our values. The question we ask now is: can we rediscover the moral purpose which underpinned success in the Cold War, thereby securing once again freedom and our democratic way of life for a generation?”

NOTES TO EDITORS

  1. The Centre for Policy Studies believes in freedom and responsibility. One of Britain’s best known and most respected think tanks, the Centre develops and promotes policies to limit the role of the state, to encourage enterprise and to enable the institutions of society – such as families and voluntary organisations – to flourish.The Centre was founded by Sir Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher in 1974 to promote the principles of a free society and has since played a global role in the dissemination of free market economics. Its role in developing the policies of privatisation, low-tax government and support for the family, is recognised across the world.
  2. For media accreditation contact Emma Revell on [email protected] or 0207 222 4488
  3. For more information contact Dominic Nutt on [email protected]  or +44 (0) 7720 467680
  4. You can follow the conference via the CPS Facebook page and Twitter account, where we will be using #MTSecurity17
  5. The conference will be recorded and the videos will be available on the CPS Youtube channel

Date Added: Sunday 25th June 2017