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CONFERENCE OUTCOMES
The International Security and Crisis Management Conference “ATHENA 2014” took place from 17 to 19 June 2014, organized by the Hellenic National Defence General Staff under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of National Defence and Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the EU.
For the first time in its decennial history, the conference expanded beyond the traditional crisis management academic and operational aiming and included a wide variety of security issues in its sessions. The above mentioned shift was a direct result of the recent events in the Eurasian and South East Mediterranean regions and signaled the institutional and academic evolution as well as the maturation of the Conference.
The 2014 Conference has hosted 300 councilors (Greek and foreigners), representatives of the Armed Forces General Staffs and Security Institutions, academicians, analysts, post-graduate and doctoral students. Through the broad participation of 83 foreign delegations - including ambassadors, foreign policy directors and flag officers- ATHENA 2014 highlighted the importance of a meeting point and a prestigious forum in the field of international security and crisis management.
In this sense, the Hellenic political and military leadership, via the director of the General Directorate of National Defence Policy and International Relations Dr. Polykarpos Adamidis who chaired the Conference, aimed at making the most of the opportunity to actively use the conference as partenariat, not only for the experts in the field of international security and defence, but also for all those who plan and practice the foreign and defence policy.
And this observation proves to be extremely important, because the issues that have been elaborated in the five sessions of the Conference cannot, and should not, be faced with the static point of view and the unilateralism of the past. Nowadays, the issues of security and crisis management concern broader and more versatile audiences as they are apt, not only to high politics but also our daily life.
The recent experiences in the geopolitical field prove that issues of national defence and security are interconnected with the fundamental principles of stability in the economic, energy and environmental field. It is characteristic what the Chairman of the Conference has mentioned in his opening remarks
“We live in societies which are based on the smooth and cooperative functioning of multiple subsystems and infrastructures of strategic importance. The weakening of one or more parameters of these subsystems, may lead to smaller or bigger failures in the state mechanisms with unpredicted consequences.”
The thematic of the conference included round table discussions and presentations focusing on the following domains:
• The evolution of strategic planning and contingency response in crisis management field.
• The interconnection between the current geopolitical realities and the energy and trade routes of stability and security, as a parameter of national power building.
• The evolution of the security architecture in support of CFSP and CSDP ideals.
• The examination of certain contemporary international crises as case studies for crisis management.
In the opening session of the Conference the Deputy Minister of National Defence, Ioannis Lampropoulos, highlighted the current security and defence challenges that emerge in the international scene and presented the dynamic that the Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the EU has offered to the evolving CSDP mechanisms and processes. Moreover, he argued in an emphatic way, that Greece as a country with strong references in the whole region can receive and efficiently decode the messages and concerns transmitted by different, often conflict torn, peoples and cultures. Thus, our country diachronically serves as a dialogue bridge, a reliable partner and a security guarantor, not only for the West but also for all our neighboring countries.
Apart from the political and military leadership of the Ministry of National Defence, in the Conference actively participated 20 speakers and moderators, among who were:
• Professor Richard H. Shultz (Fletcher University), as keynote speaker.
• Distinguished Academicians from Hellenic and Balkan universities and Military Academies (Hellenic National Defence College, Rakovski Military Academy, Kadir Has University, Panteion University, University of Piraeus, Technical University of Crete etc).
• Representatives of EU and NATO services.
• Representatives of Hellenic Civil Protection Services.
• The National Military Representative of Greece in EU, Lt. Gen. George Basiakoulis.
Through all the sessions of the conference, the distinguished guests and speakers had the chance to ascertain the complexity and the volatility of the contemporary security challenges, which, if we aspire to deal with them effectively, presuppose a high degree of consultation, effective decision-making and consensus at all levels. Additionally the conference served as a unique pool of proposals and parameter settings for the evolution of modern crisis management systems, based on the principles of efficiency building and cost-effective management.
All these ideas, concepts and approaches may contribute to the coverage of institutional, political and military weaknesses in the field of military and civilian crisis management, especially at European level. And by mentioning the European Union policies and strategies, we have to take into account that the above mentioned comprehensiveness is more critical and more relevant at European level, because the security and defence issues exceed the strict military boundaries and are closely related to broader sociopolitical and cohesion imperatives.
Of course such cohesion cannot be taken for granted, cannot be limited to dialectic schemes, especially in times of severe economic recession.
ATHENA 2014, in contrast with the methodology used in the previous conference which was based on Working Groups research, emphasized the presentation and submission of individual research papers and academic work. The above mentioned work resulted in the publication (initially in electronic format) of a Conference Journal, under the auspices of the Scientific Committee of the Conference, which included 27 research papers of Greek and foreign researchers.
The aforementioned initiative reaffirmed the longstanding links of the Ministry of National Defence and the Armed Forces in particular, to the academic community and enhanced the Conference’s prestige.
Finally, in addition to the strict program of the Conference, a full range of social events and activities has been organized for the participants and their wives, in order to provide them the opportunity to become acquainted with the cultural and historical heritage of Attica.
