Brussels Forum - Dinner Discussion on Space and Stability

Brussels Forum is an annual high-level meeting of the most influential North American and European political, corporate, and intellectual leaders to address pressing challenges currently facing both sides of the Atlantic. Participants include heads of state, senior officials from the European Union institutions and the member states, U.S. Cabinet officials, Congressional representatives, Parliamentarians, academics, and media.

Leaders on both sides of the Atlantic continue to deepen transatlantic cooperation on a vast array of distinctly new and global challenges from the international financial crisis to climate change and energy security to the retention of high-skilled workers, yet there is no single transatlantic forum focused on this broad and increasingly complex global agenda. Brussels Forum provides a venue for the transatlantic community to address these pressing issues. By bringing together leading politicians, thinkers, journalists, and business representatives, Brussels Forum helps shape a new transatlantic agenda that can adapt to changing global realities and new threats.

The Agenda and Format

The Brussels Forum agenda reflects the growing diversity of issues at the core of the transatlantic relationship, as well as the increasing geographic reach of transatlantic cooperation. It includes discussion sessions on broad themes, such as the global financial crisis, Russia, and Afghanistan. Breakout sessions held under the Chatham House Rule explore challenges like Asia, the Middle East, and climate change. Keynote addresses by senior officials punctuate a gathering heavily tilted toward intimate exchange of dialogue among panelists and participants.

The Location

The Brussels Forum is held in the Conrad Brussels hotel situated on Avenue Louise in Brussels.

Break-Out Dinners

The 2013 Brussels Forum will feature a series of break-out dinners on Saturday that will take place at restaurants throughout the city. Participants will be able to choose in advance of the conference which dinner they would like to attend. Every dinner in the end has an average of 15 – 20 participants. The discussions feature one or two speakers that will start out the conversation. The speakers are not supposed to give lengthy remarks but rather an input statement on the issue at hand in order to start a lively debate with the participants. Discussions are off-the-record in order to promote an open and honest conversation. 

The Secure World Foundation will organize one of those break-out Dinners on Space and Stability. Space has become a major component of international security.  With 60 plus nations currently operating in space and over 22,000 pieces of man-made space debris being tracked orbiting the globe, how does the international community look to confront the challenges and growing complexities of ensuring a stable and secure space environment? This session will look at the role space plays in international security and how it affects the cooperative efforts of the international community in creating suitable mechanisms, such as the EU-proposed draft on International Code of Conduct for outer space activities. 

Speakers Include:

• Theresa Hitchens, Director, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research
• Jacek Bylica, Ambassador, Principal Adviser and Special Envoy for Non-proliferation and Disarmament, European External Action Service
• Jamie Shea, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Emerging Security Challenges, NATO
• Moderator: Victoria Samson, Washington DC Office Director, Secure World Foundation

For more information about the Brussels Forum click here. For more information about the Space and Stability break-out dinner please contact the Washington DC Director Victoria Samson vsamson@swfound.org.