ISF International Security Forum

Regional and Global Security: Meeting Tomorrow’s Challenges Today

The geo-economic impacts of the 2008/2009 crisis are becoming clear as the center of gravity slowly shifts from West to East: the Asian tigers are roaring, Western motors are stuttering.  But the geopolitical consequences remain hotly disputed. For some, the world has already changed. Power has been dispersed far and wide across the "G20", with emerging markets no longer registering just economic growth, but serious political capital. For others, the distribution of power is narrowing. Political power has been distilled into a select group of powers, the most ‘select’ of all being the G2 of China and America. Does Europe matter in this equation? Can the BRIC economies really gain a political stake? Are these the right countries to be looking at in the first place? Reaching consensus on such issues is no easy task, but it is an increasingly crucial question to better answer to understand the contours of global governance today.

The same dilemma applies to more traditional security challenges. Has progress really been made on combating global terrorism? Does the Middle East present a credible prospect for stability or are the old sores of the Arab-Israeli question likely to persist? What of new sores? Could the Iranian nuclear crisis prompt a nuclear cascade across the region? Can piracy in the Gulf of Aden be quelled? No less pressing is the quagmire affecting South Asia. Afghanistan continues to hit the headlines, but India, Pakistan, China, and Central Asian players all have a stake in the game. 

But it is at the global level where the most critical challenges remain. Energy markets are fundamentally broken. Governments remain unwilling to push for low carbon economies or indeed, to reflect the realities of today’s energy demand.  Softer commodities are similarly hamstrung; food (in)security continues to undermine broader development goals. And what were once niche areas such as cyber security, are now opening up serious governance gaps at the global level.

This year’s ISF thus asks the most fundamental, yet most challenging question of all: Can the world find a new blueprint towards collective action in order to resolve global, regional and national challenges, or will shifting power patterns lead to further fragmentation? Notions of peace, order and international law may well need to be re-assessed.  Cooperation is never easy, and never more so than in a time of geo-economic and geopolitical turmoil; but if tomorrow’s challenges are to be met today it is surely required.

Program Structure

The ISF opens with a plenary session and a keynote speech, followed by three topic sessions, on day one. The second day features 24 panel sessions across the following six themed tracks:

• 9/11 plus Ten
• Regional Security: Local Dynamics - Global Impact I
• Regional Security: Local Dynamics - Global Impact II
• Present and Future of Conflict
• Human Security
• State Failure / State Building

The final conference day begins with three topic sessions and concludes with a plenary session discussing "Power Shifts and International Order".

The program guide provides detailed information on the plenary sessions, topic sessions and panels as well as side events, which are organized by interested ISF participants. Participants wishing to host a side meeting should contact the ISF Organization Team. The conference program is complemented by an exhibition of publishers and organizations, including the ISF partners.