On Tuesday (4 November), NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska addressed the first NATO Civilian Planning Conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
During her address, Mrs Shekerinska highlighted the growing importance of boosting awareness, preparedness and resilience across all of our societies. We need to "bring the right people, countries, and institutions together to best prepare our societies for the unexpected," she emphasised. The Deputy Secretary General also praised the total defence model, used in Sweden, which combines military defence and civilian defence to make resilience a whole-of-government and whole-of-society effort.
Civilian planning is the most important contribution to the integration of civil and military planning in NATO. At the NATO Summit in The Hague, Allies committed to spend 5% of GDP on defence, with up to 1.5% going towards defence-and security-related investments. This includes investments to protect critical infrastructure and networks, defend networks and ensure civil preparedness and resilience.
Discussions during the Civilian Planning Conference focused on promoting strong civil-military cooperation and alignment between NATO's defence plans and planning for resilience. Bringing together over 200 participants across civil and military stakeholders, policymakers, practitioners and experts from Allied nations, partners and industry, the Conference provided an opportunity to address ways to further strengthen NATO's resilience and the Alliance's readiness.
