Friday 6 January 2023, 11am-12noon (GMT)

Napoleon is credited with saying: ‘to know a nation’s geography is to know its foreign policy’, while the geologist and author Andrew C Katen said ‘history rhymes, but geography endures’.
This is something we in the West appear to have forgotten. As we have found out to our significant cost, what happens in ‘far off’ countries can have direct impact on us as individuals and as societies.

The Russo-Ukraine War is a reminder of this, if one is needed. But it could be argued that the West, particularly Europe, has, for too long, shown a naïve refusal to acknowledge the lesson of geopolitics: that countries ‘of trivial inherent importance to the world’ (Dominic Cummings on Ukraine), can affect us in ways we should have anticipated but did not.

Is geopolitics making a comeback? And, if so, are we now learning that lesson?

Guest chaired by

Chris Leonard (info), Independent

Facilitated by

Tarquin Folliss OBE (info), Vice Chairman, The SASIG

Panellists

Professor Paul Cornish (info), Visiting Professor, LSE Ideas, London School of Economics
General Sir Richard Shirreff (info), Member Public Service Advisory Board, Fortinet
Tim Willasey-Wilsey CMG (info), Visiting Professor, King’s College London
Juliette Wilcox (info), UK Cyber Ambassador, Department for International Trade, HMG