Chatham House: Independent thinking on international affairs
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The Bucharest Conference, organized by the German Marshall Fund, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chatham House, took place on 1-3 April 2008 alongside the official 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest. Keynote speakers included President George Bush, who called on the alliance to do more to transform itself for a new era of more disparate threats. He also called for additional NATO troops for Afghanistan and membership roadmaps for the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Romanian President Traian Băsescu, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer discussed NATO's operation in Afghanistan, the alliance's enlargement, its future role in global affairs, and Russia's relationship with the West. President Karzai - in a session chaired by BBC Presenter and Chatham House Council Member Lyse Doucet - said that Afghanistan will continue to need the support of the international community for some time but that a successful end to Afghanistan's main troubles was in sight.
IMAGE: Copyright Radu Grozescu
A set of papers were published ahead of the conference.
- NATO and Afghanistan: Saving the State-Building Enterprise
- NATO Expansion and Modern Europe
- An Evolving NATO: Pro-Democracy or Anti-Russia?
- NATO and Global Cyber Defense.
More information about this project, including proceedings of the conference, can be found on The Bucharest Conference website.