National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London,January 28, 2026, 10 AM-5 PM
Virtual and in-person tickets available here
As the world enters the second half of the 2020s, the international competition of the first part of the century has escalated firmly to confrontation between the West and more authoritarian powers – and might yet tip into a much worse and wider version of the conflict that has now raged for four years within Ukraine.
Organised in partnership with the British Army Cyber Association and the National Liberal Club Defence Circle, this one-day conference is intended to help serving UK and allied personnel – as well as all others who are interested – understand the shifting face of current warfare, both in terms of what is happening today as well as what might follow in the future.
Current timetable and agenda:
10:30 AM – Introduction and opening remarks
10:35 AM, Understanding the New Global Confrontation
An outline of the current scale global confrontation, from Ukraine to Taiwan, from critical infrastructure to resources information gaps to the far side of the moon
Peter Apps Reuters defence columnist, presenter of podcast “Facing Coming Storms” and author of “The Next World War: The New Age of Global Conflict and the Fight to Stop it
10:50 AM: Preparing for modern confrontation and major conflict
Our first panel will discuss lessons from Ukraine, the US, Estonia and the Pacific, looking at how allies and adversaries are preparing for the coming era.
James Sladden, former Royal Marine Commando now associate fellow, British Army Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research and author of study “The Battle of the Irpin River”
Major Nicholas Royer US Marine Corps and founder of Downrange military training
Eva Sula: former Estonian official turned defence industry adviser and mentor or at NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA)
Tosh Suzuki, former British Parachute Regiment officer and assistant defence attache to Beijing
1140 AM comfort break
1145 AM – Technology, Brainpower, Industry and Society
What can we learn from the latest neuroscience, technology and events in recent conflicts when it comes to building capability and resilience?
Dr Nicholas Wright: neurologist, fellow at UCL, Georgetown, Center for Strategic and International Studies, author of “Warhead, How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes the Brain”
Jaroslava Barbieri: Research Fellow Ukraine Forum, Chatham House
Jacob Parakilas: Research Leader, Defence, Security and Justice Research Group, RAND Europe
1230 AM Lunch Break
1.15 PM: The Way of the Modern Warfighter
Integrating technology and people at the “speed of relevance” – what does it really look like in the AI era?
Enrique Oti, former U.S. Air Force Colonel, now CSO Second Front
Iain Lamont: Strategic Partnerships Lead – European Defence and Applied Intuition UK.
2 PM: Russia, Ukraine, Europe, China, Taiwan and the Pacific: the current state of play (start maybe as late as 2:15 PM if we have an earlier speaker)
What is happening right now in the world’s most important confrontations – and how they interact
George Barros: head of Russian team, Institute for the Study of War, Washington DC (speaking virtually)
Daniel Shats and Matthew Sperzel: China analysts, Institute for the Study of War, Washington DC (speaking virtually)
Kateryna Stepanenko: Russia research fellow and cognitive warfare lead, Institute for the Study of War, Washington DC (speaking virtually)
2:45 PM: Comfort Break
255 PM World War 2029: Testing UK Defence in a Global War Scenario
It is January 2029, and as a new US president awaits his inauguration, Russia and China begin a large military buildup along NATO’s border and China’s coastal regions facing Taiwan. As escalation follows, this tabletop exercise and panel discussion looks at the auctions, pressures and challenges facing Britain, from where to place forces and handle messy allies, as well as the greatest direct military threat to UK mainland in recent national memory.
Brigadier Ben Barry, associate fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies. Author of “The Rise and Fall of the British Army: 1975 to 2025”
Matthew Savill: former UK Ministry of Defence civil servant and head of military sciences, Royal United Service Institute
Eva Sula: former Estonian government official and defence industrial adviser
Joshua Arnold-Forster: former special adviser to Defence Secretary John Reid, defence and political consultant
Harry Porteous: former Royal Signals officer and expert on critical national infrastructure
Venetia Rainey: presenter of Telegraph Battlelines podcast
Noel Hadjimichael: former Royal Australian Navy Officer, founder of the Liberal Defence Circle and Mayor of the London Borough of Kingston
3:45 PM: World War 2026: Going As We Are
In our second scenario, it is September 2026 – less than two months since the signing of a US-brokered Ukraine ceasefire deal that saw an Anglo-French protection force deployed north of Kyiv. Now, with the French government collapsing, the Kremlin is massing troops along the border and in Belarus, keeping its target for now deliberately ambiguous. With Chinese forces also conducting drills in the Pacific and the weather friendly for a Taiwan assault, it suddenly looks as though the naysayers who predicted war this year may be about to be proved right.
Our expert panel will respond to both of these scenarios from a UK perspective, looking at the military, political and strategic challenges – as well as asking questions over what we should be doing to prepare for and deter those outcomes.
4:45 PM: final comments
5 PM close
An Army Air Corps Apache AH1D Attack Helicopter is flying overhead.
*A HEALING TOOL WAS USED ON THIS IMAGE DUE TO DUST ON THE SENSOR*
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