The agreements establish Sweden and Norway jointly and coequally as ‘Host Nation Supporters’ of both conferences, irrespective of venue. The initiative has been framed as a highly collaborative one.
The 2013 GSR will be held in Stockholm from Friday 20 September to Sunday 22 September, at the Grand Hotel and Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre.
The need has never been greater for a single venue at which intellectual order can be imposed on an increasingly dispersed, diffuse and complex set of global policy challenges. The GSR meets this demand. Drawing on the unique analytical reach and networks of the IISS, the GSR has become the leading annual conference on geopolitical risk and strategic change. Private experts and academics engage policymakers and senior officials and representatives from business to sharpen strategic thought. Each GSR has typically involved around 300 delegates drawn from over 40 countries. The conference gives expression to the evolving research agenda of an increasingly global IISS.
“We are delighted by these agreements,” said IISS Chief Executive and Director General Dr John Chipman.
“With their active records of international engagement, wide curiosity about world affairs, strong practical contributions to questions of global governance, open and attractive societies and their economic vitality, Sweden and Norway make ideal hosts for the GSR. We value the opportunity to work with them to advance, through the GSR process, fresh ideas on salient strategic policy questions from a truly global perspective,” he added.
“In 2013 and 2014 the GSR will benefit from further modernisation and development, to include deeper substantive consideration of new geo-economic trends and relationships, as well as steps to ensure effectively balanced representation at the conference from across the Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and Europe and Eurasia,” IISS Director of Studies Adam Ward said.