Following the 2015 launch of Global Knowledge Networking, GCF organized a Symposium and Workshop, convened by George Mason University in collaboration with the PfP Consortium Emerging Security Challenges Working Group in partnership with NATO Allied Command for Transformation, the United States Atlantic Council, and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
Day One was a Symposium with distinguished speakers and expert panels that created a framework for tangible progress on emerging security challenges and interconnected global problems.
- The “Emerging Challenges” Symposium commenced with the Opening Keynote on Cascading Risks by Dr. Stephen Flynn, who outlined that a strategic consequence of our increasingly hyper-connected world has been to elevate the risk of wide-ranging cascading failures from what once were largely localized disruptions
- The Symposium agenda on Day One set the stage for the Featured Keynote by Thomas Friedman on building resilience through “Innovation in the Age of Accelerations.”
Day Two was a design-thinking workshop, for invited attendees only. Actionable recommendations were developed by teams of invited experts building on the guidance of Pulitzer Prize Winner and keynote speaker Thomas Friedman.
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
Keynotes and main themes
The Symposium featured a keynote by New York Times columnist, Pulitzer Prize Winner and bestselling author Thomas L. FRIEDMAN:
“Radical, rapid technology shift is leaving many people profoundly dislocated. Unless society finds new ways to respond to this dislocation, the sense of malaise and anger is likely to get worse, not least because technological change is speeding up, not slowing down. The upheaval today is far more dramatic than earlier phases. That is partly because of accelerating technological change, or the impact of “Moore’s Law”. But it is also because market forces are linking the world more powerfully than ever, occurring alongside three dangerous climate changes - one digital, one ecological, and one geo-economical. We have no choice but to learn to adapt to this new pace of change!”
In his opening keynote, Dr. Stephen Flynn spoke about hyper connectivity and public anxiety and explored how society can “move from a threat-centered approach to a resilience-focused approach on “Cascading Risks”.
Workshop and recommendations
The keynotes and subsequent panels on security-related issues set the scene for the closed-to-the-public Workshop on the second day which explored people, processes, organizations, and technologies that can help create a connected community to address the identified challenges. Participants identified challenges and opportunities and developed concrete recommendations in response.
GCF and UNITAR to cooperate on cyber resilience capacity building
The Workshop also featured a presentation of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) on a joint project with GCF: a learning platform for cyber resilience for the local level. Representatives from UNITAR and GCF reiterated the need for capacity building, particularly on the local level of developing nations. The joint UNITAR-GCF project, UN Cyber:Learn, seeks to promote a strategic approach towards building cyber resilience in states and aims to establish awareness of cybersecurity as critical to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
To formalize their cooperation in the field of training and cyber resilience, UNITAR and GCF signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the symposium at GMU.
The complete report of the second Global Knowledge Networking event can be viewed here.
