Brussels Forum - SWF Hosts Dinner Discussion on Space and Stability

Saturday, March 16, 2013

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.

On March 16, 2013, Secure World Foundation hosted a break-out dinner on Space and Stability at the Conrad Brussels Hotel. 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 discussed 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. 

The speakers at the dinner included:

• 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 Officer Director, Secure World Foundation

Although the dinner discussion was held off record, full session videos of other discussions held at the Brussels Forum can be viewed here. 

To learn more about the Brussels Forum, please click here.