Halifax International Security Forum Releases 2016 Topical Agenda

WASHINGTON, DC – Halifax International Security Forum, North America’s leading foreign affairs and defense conference, announces the release of its topical agenda for this year’s gathering in Halifax, Nova Scotia, November 18-20.

 

For the agenda, click here.

 

The Halifax International Security Forum’s annual agenda has earned a global reputation for identifying and addressing the issues that security officials must confront today and into the future.  As far back as 2013, the plenary session “Free Radicals With Return Tickets” addressed the urgent issue of Western youth joining radical terrorist organizations in increasing numbers and the potential for attacks in our own cities.  The international community is still dealing with this threat.

 

This year’s agenda aims to be equally prescient.

 

“Brexit, populism in continental Europe, the rise of Donald Trump in the United States, and the recent referendum in Colombia turning down the peace deal demonstrate a real disconnect between elites and the public across the democratic world,” said Peter Van Praagh, President of Halifax International Security Forum.  “If local politics forces democracies to look inward, will we be capable of meeting the global security threats ahead?  We must have a conversation at Halifax that leads to a better understanding of the challenges in our own democracies so we are fully equipped to continue to look outward.”

 

Halifax International Security Forum will be hosted by the Hon. Harjit Sajjan, Canada’s Minister of National Defence.  It brings together individuals who are on the ground facing consequential local threats, writers who challenge and influence the world’s thinking on security, and global decision-makers who make the tough choices.

 

The Halifax International Security Forum is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Washington, DC.  The Forum is made possible by the generous support from its partners, including the Government of Canada, and the Halifax Canada Club.

 

2016 DRAFT TOPICAL AGENDA

 

Plenary Sessions (On-the-Record)

 

• Make Democracy Great Again
• The Superpower’s Enduring Priorities: Trade, Justice and the American Way
• Great Continent, Great Responsibility: Finding China’s Role
• Because Syria: I’m Your Friendly Neighborhood Terrorist
• NATO: Necessary
• Climate Security, Energy Security and the Politics of Slow Moving Threats
• Spies Love Us: Protecting Information in the Age of Openness
• Return of the Nation State

 

Small Group Sessions (Off-the-Record)

 

• Are We All Being Served?: Women and the Importance of Being Inclusive
• Beneath the Waves: Submarine Surge
• Can Liberal Institutions Survive Democracy?
• Catastrophe in South Sudan
• Colombia’s Peace: Latin Lessons for All
• Defense, Development, Diplomacy: Difficult
• Democracy Lost: When Allies Go Astray
• Drugs: America’s Addiction, Mexico’s Affliction
• The End of Secrecy: The End of Diplomacy?
• Energy as a Weapon: An Idea Whose Time has Passed?
• India: Last BRIC in the Wall
• ISIS in Africa
• London Calling, Europe Falling
• Maidan, Crimea, and the Obstacles to Democracy in Ukraine
• Middle East Mess: Who Should Clean It Up?  Who Can?
• The New Battlefield: Where Is It?
• Old Enemies, New Friends?: Realignment in the Middle East
• Operation: Peace
• Power Corrupts, Corruption Corrodes
• Reconciliation or Escalation: The Korean Conundrum
• Refugees Passing Borders, Nations Passing the Buck
• Russia: Putin’ the Bloc Back Together
• Sea, Cyber, Space: The Long Game in Asia
• Securing Afghanistan, Losing Pakistan
• Terror: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
• Top Cop: Fulfilling the UN’s Eternal Promise
• TPP: Toward a New Liberal Order in Asia
• Turkey’s Failed Coup and the Consequences for the Rest of the World

For media inquiries, please contact communications@halifaxtheforum.org. Please direct other inquiries to info@halifaxtheforum.org