From March 21st to 22nd, the 5th Law & Intelligence Services Symposium has taken place in Berlin, organized jointly by the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of the Interior with the focus, this year, “Intelligence services and armed conflicts”.
Superbly organized, this Symposium brought together academic specialists in Law and researchers in Intelligence Studies with members of the association of former executives of the German services (for more details, see www.gknd.de), current leaders of the main services, Members of the Parliament (also members of the control commissions), senior executives from the Ministry of Defense, the Interior and the National Coordination and some specialized journalists. It made it possible to address various subjects linked to conflict law and to develop in detail the issues linked to hybrid threats.
Before the closing speech by the National Intelligence Coordinator, an important discussion was held in the active presence, inter alia, of the President of the BND, the President of the G10 Parliamentary Control Commission, the President of BaMAD, the Vice-President of the BFV (1). In fact placed under the long shadow of the war in Ukraine and the famous declaration of February 27, 2024 made by Chancellor Scholz on the strategic shift (“Der 24.Februar 2022 markiert eine Zeitenwende in der Geschichte unseres Kontinents.”), this symposium made it possible to discuss how this shift impacted or should impact the German Services community.
The Permanent Secretariat of the Intelligence College in Europe, which works closely with Germany, one of its founding members and one of its most permanent supporters, was present there.
(1) – Respectively Civil and Military Foreign Intelligence Service, Military Protection and Counter-Espionage Service and (Federal) Internal Security Service.