On June 29, at the SDA’s annual flagship conference, Dutch Defence Minister Hans Hillen emphasised that “we are already seeing the effect of the financial crisis on our capabilities”. Facing these tough realities, the Minister was nonetheless optimistic that pooling, sharing and “Smart Defence” will lead to a successful transformation of European militaries, but only if they can come to accept the “mutual interdependence and reliance” that this entails. In the Ministers opinion, “you cannot rely on soft power alone, you must also have the muscle to defend your interests, and the interests of your allies abroad”. Speakers included: Gerald Howarth, British Minister for International Security Strategy, Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, Emmanuel De Romémont, Deputy Director for Strategic Affairs in the French MOD, Jean-Francois Bureau, French Contrôleur General des Armées, General Knud Bartels, Danish Chief of Defence, Huseyin Dirioz, Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning, Dmitry Rogozin, Russian Ambassador to NATO and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, former NATO’s Secretary General and Co-president of the Security & Defence Agenda.

The SDA is pleased to present the principal conclusions of the conference in this report.

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