PROA Communicationin collaboration with the Spanish Atlantic AssociationThe meeting was held on Thursday, 29 June, under the title "War and Peace in the Global Marketplaceanalysed the situation of the defence industry, the war in Ukraine and NATO's current position. Three important figures from the national scene, surrounded by a large audience from the business, diplomatic and military worlds, analysed the national and international scene: Retired Admiral Juan Rodríguez Garatone of the military analysts who is best following the war in Ukraine and who didactically sketched the world and Spanish panorama in the face of this Russian invasion; Adolfo MenéndezThe third speaker was the former Undersecretary of Defence and now President of the Spanish Atlantic Association, a jurist and State Lawyer before the Audiencia Nacional, and the third speaker, César RamosThe General Director of the Spanish Association of Defence, Aeronautical Security and Space Technological Companies (ATSAS) (TEDAE), an economist with more than 25 years of experience in the management and direction of Aeronautics, Defence and Space business associations.
Lucía Casanuevapartner and director of PROA, moderated this Observatory The aim of the conference was to analyse a world in constant change and where we face significant challenges that threaten our security. And where communication plays a very important role, as César Ramos made clear during his speech: "When it comes to communicating about the defence industry, we have to achieve two things: to enhance its value as a key sector for the economy and for Spain. And, more importantly, to maintain this favourable public opinion. And the second is communicate positively, that little or nothing has been proactively communicated before the war in Ukraine by the defence industry.. And to live in peace you have to invest in defence.
In the words of César Ramos, "the greatest challenge facing our defence industry is not financial, nor budgetary, nor technological, nor business; the biggest challenge is to maintain the favourable state of opinion that has arisen as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. and which has shaken Western citizens out of their lethargy. And so have policy-makers. He added: "All countries have reacted by giving a higher priority to a policy such as defence, because they have begun to understand that without security there is no freedom and without freedom there is no progress. Defence is a European public good.
César Ramos brought up a quote from the recently deceased Princess of Asturias laureate, Nuccio Ordine, who reflected thus: "In the universe of utilitarianism, a hammer is worth more than a symphony, a knife, more than poetry, a spanner, more than a painting, because it is easy to take over the effectiveness of a tool, while it is increasingly difficult to understand what music, literature or art can be used for". "Something similar happens to us - in the words of César Ramos - we pay for the price of a tank, a frigate or a military plane, but we don't understand what they are for. we find it hard to understand the price of our security and our way of life".
And the war in Ukraine has changed the global landscape.As Admiral Garat admitted: "This war has broken all records for pretexts to justify it. One of those pretexts is Putin's argument for creating a new, fairer world order. It is yet another of the Russian dictator's failures. But more important than the bipolarity of the new world are the structures that this war has brought down, such as the UN, which has never been more useless than in this war; nuclear weapons, which made the powers think they could not go to war; and trade relations, because such mutual dependence as existed, for example, between Russia and Germany, where Russia bought technology in exchange for cheap energy supplies to Germany, would prevent a conflict. With these pillars fallen, what are we left with? As the Roman maxim goes si vis pacem, para bellumIf you want peace, prepare for war. The world reassembles. It brings us back to an armed peace. And it helps us Spaniards to understand what the Armed Forces are for.
However, Adolfo Menéndez did not blame the war in Ukraine for the increase in defence spending, "the increase has come about because we are beginning to understand that we want to live in peace, freedom and the rule of law. What the war has been is a warning that we cannot live in a state of inopia as we used to. For Europe to remain as we know it, we have to invest in our security.
The debate came to an end with a question and answer session from the audience. And in addition to the three great speakers on the podium, as Admiral Garat pointed out before his first intervention, the audience included some very illustrious military personnel, such as General Félix Sanz Roldán, former JEMAD and former director of the National Intelligence CentreHe shared an idea: "Spain is one of the best allies of the Atlantic Alliance, but nobody believes them. Why? What should we do? And all because we are ranked by what we invest in defence and not by what we contribute". Admiral Garat stressed that this is true, but everyone knows that deterrence is carried out by US aircraft carriers, but not by Spanish frigates, which do not carry adequate ammunition because there has been no budget for it".