Partners oceans apart: Economic resilience and global flows

Webinar · 03.06.2021 08:00 - 09:15

Australia, on the one hand, and Finland and Sweden, on the other, are literally oceans apart geographically. Nonetheless, as liberal economies and democracies with deep dependence on global trade and the rules-based international system they have many common interests. Global value and supply chains constitute lifelines to their economies. The continuity of these critical flows poses a common challenge to their national security and resilience. All three countries are internationally recognized to excel in different areas of resilience; Australia in disaster risk and resilience, critical infrastructure resilience and in managing foreign interference; Sweden in societal security and comprehensive defence (Totalförsvar); and Finland in comprehensive security, security of supply and the countering of hybrid threats. As such, they share interests in information sharing and cooperation on best practices. The aim of this webinar is to provide a platform for the open sharing of best practices and ideas between like-minded countries with potential synergies in resilience building. It also aims to provide further dialogue in general amongst national security communities on best practices of whole-of-society approaches to security.

 

Speakers

Opening remarks

Sari Rautio

Director of the Unit for Security Policy and Crisis Management, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Sari Rautio serves as the Director for Security Policy and Crisis Management within the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland since April 2018. Previously she held the position of Director for EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (2015-2018) in Helsinki and the Deputy Representative of Finland to the EU Political and Security Committee (PSC) in Brussels (2012-2015). Her earlier assignments within the Ministry entailed security policy, crisis management, UN policies, and the Middle East.

Australian perspective

Rory Medcalf

Head of College, National Security College, Australian National University

Professor Rory Medcalf is the Head of the National Security College (NSC) at the Australian National University. His professional background involves three decades of experience across diplomacy, intelligence analysis, think tanks, academia and journalism, including as founding Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute from 2007 to 2015. He is a chief investigator in a 2019-2021 research project funded by the Australian Department of Defence, titled 'Made for Multipolarity: Operationalising an Indo-Pacific strategy in the Indian Ocean'.

Swedish approach to societal security

Jan-Olof Olsson

Executive Officer, Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency MSB

Jan-Olof Olsson has worked as an Executive Officer at the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency MSB since 2014. He is an expert within the field of security of supply, critical infrastructure and global flows, and is the MSB representative in different international work groups. He has a background in electrical engineering, and has previously worked for Fortum Power & Heat as Manager and Project Lead.

Finnish comprehensive security model and security of supply

Christian Fjäder

Director of the Department for Planning and Analysis, National Emergency Supply Agency of Finland

Christian Fjäder is Director of Policy Planning and Analysis at the National Emergency Supply Agency of Finland. He has been a Visiting Research Fellow at FIIA and worked for Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks in the fields of corporate safety, risk management and business continuity management, being responsible for area (Asia Pacific) and global activities. He holds a PhD in International Relations from University of Sydney and is a Steering Group Member of the OECD High Level Risk Forum.

Moderator

Mikael Wigell

Programme Director, FIIA

Mikael Wigell is Programme Director of the Global Security research programme at FIIA and Adjunct Professor at Tampere University. He has held Visiting Fellowships at Oxford University and the Torcuato di Tella University, Buenos Aires, as well as a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Academy of Finland. He earned his PhD from the London School of Economics and he is a former chairman of the Finnish International Studies Association. His latest book is the edited volume "Geo-economics and Power Politics in the 21st Century" (Routledge 2018; 2020).