King's College London

Hosted by King's College London, the conference brought together policymakers, academics, industry and the military to discuss critical global security challenges.

In the opening keynote conversation, hosted by Professor John Gearson, Professor of National Security Studies at King’s, the Rt Hon John Healey MP, Secretary of State for Defence, described the LDC an “important conference for the country” noting this was his fourth year of attendance.

Healey reflected on the 80th anniversary of VE day saying that we’ve “all been reminded of how great the whole society effort was during that wartime period.” He went on to say that Ukraine is currently fighting for the same things now, that we were fighting for 80 years ago.

He reiterated the government’s commitment to increasing UK defence spending, saying that it will also be a boost to the country’s economy.

He also described the vital role of NATO, calling the UK government’s commitment as ‘unshakeable’. He went on to say: “I would like to see Britain’s role as the leading European nation in NATO reinforced. I’d like to see Britain recognised as having the most rapidly innovating armed forces in NATO.”

In his opening keynote presentation, Dr Klaus Hommels, Chair of the NATO Innovation Fund, discussed the need for European investment in technology saying that there is “no doubt that we are in war. We can’t sugarcoat this”.

Hommels emphasised the need to work together, not only as nations but across different industries. He also highlighted the necessity for European sovereignty around technology, saying that Europe is increasingly dependent on American infrastructure in areas such as social media, payment and space and defence.

In a session considering the threat of ‘CRINK’ nations (China, Russia, Iran and North Korea) to Western democracies, Dr Charlie Laderman, a Senior Lecturer in International History at King’s College London stressed that we should be “cautious about allowing authoritarian regimes to speak on behalf of a whole population. We may find that some of our best allies are within these systems themselves.”

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK, opened his keynote saying that it was “very symbolic to speak today when we’re celebrating the 80th anniversary of the end of the war against fascism”.

In his speech Zaluzhnyi reflected on the state of international security, global alliances and NATO asking “what is the purpose of this alliance if it’s afraid of having enemies?”

Panel discussions throughout the day provided expert analysis on the how to transform defence spending, procurement and infrastructure, how we can mitigate and adapt to vulnerabilities in areas of ‘sub-threshold warfare’ and how to win the public over in conversations around defence.

The annual London Defence Conference draws to a close tomorrow, with a "Future Leaders Day" curated by Security Studies students.