Building integrity essential for security agenda
On 11 October, 2018, the Centre for Integrity in the Defence Sector (CIDS) hosted a conference entitled, “Why building integrity, institution building and anti-corruption belong on the security agenda”. Discussions covered the wider context of Building Integrity (BI).
Sir Ian Andrews from Transparency International highlighted that corruption is a major driver of insecurity stating that, “the defence sector fails badly, if it fails”. Other speakers shared their perspectives, stressing that reasons for corruption were not always internal, that corruption was seen as a disease, and also as a serious social problem with the potential of destabilising countries and regions.
Director of CIDS, Mr Per A. Christensen, pointed out that the results of the conference were promising. They underlined that there should be more focus on hybrid threats in the future and concluded that there was a need to reach out to other nations besides those that were in focus today.
Head of Building Integrity at NATO Headquarters in Brussels Ms Susan Pond stressed the value of the conference as an excellent venue for sharing ideas and best practices, discussing the future efforts and identifying actions that must be pursued in addressing this very critical topic. “We need to continue our efforts and focus in mainstreaming BI and promoting best practices and keep our focus on our experiences in operations and missions and find the way to address hybrid threats and transnational risks,” she said.