Madrid (Casa de Galicia)

CITpax, Martti Ahtisaari's Crisis Management Initiative, and the Madariaga Foundation, presided by Javier Solana, organised a Seminar in Madrid to contribute to designing a wider culture of national defence in Spain. This must provide an effective response to the new international challenges in their different dimensions -civilian and military- and promote effective multilateralism as depicted in the European Security Strategy.

The focus of the meeting was to explore solutions to enhance cooperation among civilian, military and international actors within the different dimensions of Security and Defence at both the national and the international levels, to finding ways to achieve a safer, more stable and more peaceful world. Both Spain and the International Community should aspire to achieving this goal.

The current President of the Public Administration Commission and Member of the External Relations Commission in the Spanish Congress, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, the Director of the Spanish Institute of Strategic Studies, Admiral Jaime Rodríguez-Toubes Nuñez, and the Vice-President of CITpax, Shlomo Ben-Ami, inaugurated the Seminar.

Renowned experts from the Spanish Ministry of Defence, from Presidency of Government, from International Organisations such as NATO and the EU, from reference think-tanks in the area of Security and Civil Crisis Management (IECHA, EPLO, ECFR), as well as academics, all participated in the Seminar.