A New Era for Defence: Risk, Deterrence, and a Whole-of-Nation Response.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Cityforum Intelligent Defence and Smart Power conference, A New Era for Defence: Risk, Deterrence, and a Whole-of-Nation Response.
Discussions will focus on the time-critical theme of national resilience, which cannot only come from defence, but requires a whole-of-nation approach. The day will consider what needs to happen to take a country from a peacetime footing into a place of readiness for prolonged conflict, and the ever-increasing importance of deterrence.
The three sessions will be chaired by The Rt Hon the Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Lord Toby Harris, Chair, National Preparedness Commission, and Dr Andrew Curtis, Editorial Board, Cityforum.
Themes for the day are:
- Assessing Risks and Threats – for what do we need to be prepared, and how do we need to be positioned to ensure the impact is contained and short-lived?
- Deterrence in a Contested World – choice, credibility and endurance across all domains
- Whole-of-Nation Response to Resilience – moving from preparedness as policy to preparedness as practice
Further speakers will be published in due course and more information on the agenda can be found at IDSP2026.
Places at the event are limited. At least 85% of the audience will be a carefully curated group of public sector guests, however there are a small number of industry delegate tickets available to purchase.
As a Supporting Partner of the event, techUK is pleased to share the following code with members, which will provide a 15% discount on tickets (login below):
