Transatlantic Defense Partnership at Stake? Geostrategic Changes, Economic Trends and Mutual Defense
This event is co-sponsored by EPS.
While NATO has regularly reaffirmed the need to increase military spending to contribute to the Alliance’s security, most countries face several budgetary constraints. Moreover political choices to come will be influenced by deep transformations in the political landscape on both shores of the Atlantic (Trump administration, general elections in France, the Netherlands, Germany…).
The end of the International Security Assistance Force posed a challenge for the future of NATO, since the alliance has to look for renewed goals and a reinforced pact of collective security. Despite several threats, notably from terrorist organizations, and a rising Russian power, it appears difficult to overcome tensions inside NATO that are amplified by a new political environment.
On which ground can we expect to reignite the transatlantic defense partnership? What can be the missions for NATO and other transatlantic initiatives after Afghanistan? How to increase the effectiveness of military spending while keeping fiscal pressure under control?
Program
Keynote: Peter Chase — German Marshall Fund
Panel One: Why do we invest in military expenditures?
Participants:
Tomáš Valášek — Carnegie Europe
Edward Hunter Charlie — NATO
Binyam Salomon — Defence Research and Development Canada and Carleton University
Panel Two: What future for the defense industrial base?
Participants:
Ethan Corbin — NATO Parliamentary Assembly
Eugen Gholz — University of Texas
Renaud Bellais — Airbus and ENSTA Bretagne
Gallery
Participant Biographies
Renaud Bellais
Chief Economist Public Affairs France, Airbus Group (Paris), I graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille in 1994 and prepared a PhD in economics on “Public investment, technology and innovation: the case of arms production and its interaction with commercial activities” at the Université du Littoral (1998, cum laude). I defended my habilitation in 2004 at the Université Pierre Mendès France, Grenoble.
Before joining Airbus Group, I was a lecturer in economics (1998–2000) at the Université du Littoral and project manager (2000–2004) in the Centre des Hautes Etudes de l’Armement of DGA, the French Defense Procurement Agency.
Peter Chase
Peter Chase is a Senior Fellow with the German Marshall Fund, based in Brussels. He recently left the U.S. Chamber of Commerce after six years as its Senior Representative in Europe. Prior to joining the Chamber, Mr. Chase was a U.S. diplomat for 30 years, working extensively on transatlantic economic policy issues between 1992 and 2010. During his diplomatic career, he also served 1990–92 as Director for Investment Affairs at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and as Legislative Assistant for Economic Policy and Foreign Affairs with Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ). Mr. Chase, who grew up in Taiwan, received his Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Language and Literature from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1976 and his Master of International Affairs from Columbia University in 1978. He was married and has three grown daughters.
Edward Hunter Christie
Edward Hunter Christie is a Defence Economist at NATO. An economist by training, he worked as a research economist, with a focus on Eastern Europe, at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies from 2002 to 2010. After a period working for industry and in EU public affairs, he joined NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division in December 2014.
Ethan Corbin
Ethan Corbin is the Director of the Defence and Security Committee at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He completed his doctorate in international relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in May, 2013. Prior to joining the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Ethan was a Lecturer in political international relations at Tufts University teaching courses on U.S. foreign policy and international security studies. His research interests include U.S. foreign policy, international security, international organizations, and Middle Eastern politics. From 2011–2013, Ethan was a Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Ethan has published on topics ranging from Syrian foreign policy, peacekeeping operations, and insurgency and counter-insurgency warfare. Ethan has also worked for the State Department and the Department of Defense. Other past fellowships include: Earhart Foundation, Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences–Po), and The Eisenhower Institute.
Eugene Gholz
Eugene Gholz is an Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT–Austin where he works primarily at the intersection of national security and economic policy. From 2010–2012, he served in the Pentagon as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, where he led initiatives to better understand the complex defense supply chain and to apply that understanding in the budget process. He also focused on policy regarding reimbursement of industry's Independent Research and Development (IR&D) expenditures. Before working in the Pentagon, he directed the LBJ School's master's program in global policy studies from 2007–10.
Dr. Gholz previously taught at the University of Kentucky's Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce. He is a research affiliate of MIT's Security Studies Program, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and associate editor of the journal Security Studies. Dr. Gholz works on innovation, defense management, and U.S. foreign policy, and his recent scholarship focuses on energy security. He is the coauthor of two books: Buying Military Transformation: Technological Innovation and the Defense Industry, and U.S. Defense Politics: The Origins of Security Policy. Dr. Gholz received his Ph.D. from MIT in 2000.
Binyam Salomon
Senior Defence Scientist, Centre for Operational Research and Analysis–Defence R&D Canada and Team Leader, Defence Economics Team. Mr. Solomon joined the public service in 1990 as a research analyst with the Time Series Analysis Division of Statistics Canada (SC) and later as a Statistician for the transportation division. He is currently Senior Defence Scientist, Centre for Operational Research and Analysis–Defence R&D Canada and Team Leader, Defence Economics Team, at National Defence Headquarters. He has previously worked for the Assistant Deputy Minister Finance as Chief Economist and head of the Defence Economics Research and Analysis section as well as the Policy group where he conducted a multi-lateral study on Allied military training in Canada, attrition and recruitment modeling and forecasting; and an interdepartmental and intergovernmental project on the economic consequences of infrastructure reduction on the national, provincial and local economies. Mr. Solomon has also conducted various studies on peacekeeping economics including a case study on the United Nation mission in Haiti. Mr. Solomon holds a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Ottawa and a Ph D in Defence Economics from the University of York, United Kingdom. He has also completed courses in Defence Resource Management from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and Peacekeeping Management and Command Course from the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Nova Scotia. He is an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University and RMC and co-Director of the Institute for Defence Resource Management (IDRM).
Tomáš Valášek
Tomáš Valášek is the director of Carnegie Europe, where his research focuses on security and defense, transatlantic relations, and Europe’s Eastern neighborhood.
Previously, Valášek served as the permanent representative of the Slovak Republic to NATO for nearly four years. Before that, he was president of the Central European Policy Institute in Bratislava (2012–2013), director of foreign policy and defense at the Centre for European Reform in London (2007–2012), and founder and director of the Brussels office of the World Security Institute (2002–2006). In 2006–2007, he served as acting political director and head of the security and defense policy division at the Slovak Ministry of Defense.
Valášek is the author of numerous articles in newspapers and journals including the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times. He advised the Slovak defense and foreign ministers, the UK House of Lords, and the Group of Experts on the new NATO Strategic Concept.