76th Anglo-German Königswinter Conference

At the 76th Anglo-German Königswinter conference, held in Manchester on 18th and 19th June for the first time, I had the honour of chairing a session on ‘Defending without bullets – Strengthening Societal Resilience and Public Support for Preparedness’. The delegates in-cluded politicians, government officials, media, and business and civil society representati-ves, and concentrated on the what and the how and unanimously upheld that “people to people” is relevant in times of crises as much as it is in fair weather.

Some observations:

• The good news is that people are open and ready to discuss the issues.
• There exists a culture of suppression. Politicians do not wish to have a broad discussion; rather, these take place in a closed defence bubble.
• Sadly, there is little trust in delivery by the state.
• We did not come across any big differences between the UK and Germany.

Some very relevant issues came up. A few examples

• It’s not just about the how. The overreaching issue is what we need to prepare for and what we believe is worth while defending.
• Bringing the state, the private sector, and civil society to the same table is important.
• All generations need to be involved in preparing. Our experience during Covid should teach us that preserving social cohesion is vital.
• Inclusion revolves around encouraging and empowering all citizens through existing communities of choice i.e. civil society.
• The issue of food procurement needs to be included in all plans for preparedness.
• The climate change issue does not go away while we defend our country.
• We must look out for best practices and learn from others, the Baltics, Finland, Norway, and Ukraine in particular, where functioning models of civil defense have been develo-ped and tested.

The way forward to preparedness as we saw it:

• Accept the challenge, do not shy away from it!
• Encourage an informed public debate: Citizens need to be and want to be informed.
• Stop thinking non-specialists/non-governmentals are stupid or should be shielded from discussions on preparedness!
• Involve existing networks, organisations, communication channels, all to be found in civil society organisations!
• Take a closer look at models of democratic involvement – citizens’ assemblies &c.!
• Encourarage learning experiences, both at home and abroad!
• Concentrate on promoting dynamics of resilience rather than on regulations and con-trols!