RIGA, LATVIA – NATO’s Resilience Symposium 2023 (RS23) was held in Riga, Latvia from April 25 to 27, 2023 with the theme “Resilience in the age of disruption”. The symposium was co-organized by the NATO International Staff Defence Planning and Policy Division and Allied Command Transformation, and hosted by the government of Latvia. It welcomed over 250 civilian and military leaders, policy makers and experts with a resilience portfolio with the purpose of gathering to promote resilience as a national responsibility and a collective commitment.
Attendees explored key issues on the resilience agenda in order to understand them better and to support faster decision making, with the aim of reducing vulnerabilities and enhancing capacity to prepare for, resist, respond to, and quickly recover from strategic shocks and disruptions. The symposium is key to allowing participants to gather and share views and best practices, to strengthen existing relationships and to forge new ones.
Resilience enables NATO’s ability to deter, defend, and support the civil environment, as well as maintain continuity of government and essential services, along with civil support to the military. Strategic shocks, such as natural disasters or conflict, can impact these core functions and the alliance must be able to navigate through the challenges. Resilience offers a process through which policy, strategy, planning and capability development can be guided. It cannot be done in isolation and demands a large community, working together, preparing for the challenges of today and tomorrow. RS23 offered a venue to support this process.
