LIBG
ANNUAL DINNER – ‘NATO NEWS’
Dr JAMIE SHEA, Deputy Assistant Secretary
General, NATO and Air Vice Marshall Sir TIM GARDEN
National
Liberal Club
The 2003 LIBG Annual Dinner at the
National Liberal Club was a very popular event this year. Given the date, the dinner menu had a
Thanksgiving theme and our speakers brought to the evening many years of
expertise on theory, execution and media presentation of foreign affairs,
defence and peace-keeping.
After dinner, Dr Jamie Shea talked
about NATO’s recent deployment challenges in its many concurrent operations
around the world, the ability of NATO members to meet their materiel
commitments and the changing relationship between members of the alliance. Air Vice Marshall Sir Tim Garden acted as an
expert counterweight with many perceptive observations from a liberal political
perspective.
The evening concluded with a lively
question and answer session over coffee which covered many topics, including
9/11, the recent state visit of President George W Bush to the U.K. and the
influence of Washington ‘neo-conservatives’ within NATO.