The second panel at the LDC Washington Forum last week in the US was “Deterring Adversaries”, moderated by LDC’s @jamescrabtree. The panel featured H.E. @robertas_kaunas, Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania; Neil Brown, Chief Geopolitical Strategist at Deltroit Asset Management; Professor Francis J. Gavin, Director of the Kissinger Center at SAIS Johns Hopkins; and @sophgaston from the King’s College London. The panel explored how China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are applying the lessons from Iran and Ukraine to build their own deterrence and shape force posture. It also examined how the U.S. and allies can strengthen its collective deterrence to counter China’s broader strategy and withstand future pressure from adversaries. The LDC Washington Forum is held in collaboration with the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress (@CSPC_DC). LDC’s next event is the LDC Investment Forum, returning to the City of London on 2 December. To find out more, please contact our colleague Georgie Krone at [email protected].

The third panel at last week’s LDC Washington Forum was “Tomorrow’s Capabilities Today,” moderated by The Economist’s @shashj. The panel featured U.S. Senator Joni Ernst; The Honorable Michael “Mike” Dodd (@ASWCTDoddFather), Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies at the Department of War; Sarah Pearson, Chief of Strategic Initiatives at the DOW Defense Innovation Unit; Heather K. Armentrout, U.S. President and General Manager at @kongsbergasa; and Sven Kruck, Co-CEO of @quantumdrones. The panel examined how emerging technologies are transforming warfighting capabilities and what steps allies are taking to adopt and scale them at pace. Under the theme “Winning Future Wars,” the 2026 LDC Washington Forum took place in the heart of Washington, D.C., at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, in partnership with the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress (@CSPC_DC). Our next event is the LDC Investment Forum, which takes place in the City of London on 2 December. To learn more about the forum, please contact our Head of Partnerships, Georgie Krone, at [email protected].

LDC Washington Forum, in partnership with the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress (@CSPC_DC), had its first panel, “Learning the Right Military Lessons from Iran and Ukraine,” where our panelists discussed the lessons learned from the on-going conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, and how allies can apply these lessons to future conflicts. Moderated by @paulmcleary, the panel featured Dr Fiona Hill of the @BrookingsInst, @MassDara of @CarnegieEndow, David Rader of the @HudsonInstitute, and @daniel_flesch of the @DT_Alliance. Under the theme “Winning Future Wars,” the 2026 LDC Washington Forum took place in the heart of Washington, D.C., at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Our next event is the LDC Investment Forum, which takes place in the City of London on 2 December. To learn more about the forum, please contact our Head of Partnerships, Georgie Krone, at [email protected].

LDC Washington Forum 2026 Highlights The LDC Washington Forum, held in partnership with the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress (@CSPC_DC), opened with a keynote address from The Rt Hon @TomTugendhat MBE VR MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, following welcome remarks from LDC Director @iainmartin1 and @GlennNye, President and CEO of CSPC. Under the theme “Winning Future Wars,” the forum took place in the heart of Washington, D.C., at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, bringing together guests from politics, policy, national security, academia, industry and select media. Highlights from the opening keynote and other sessions will be available soon on YouTube: youtube.com/@LondonDefenceCo…

The LDC Washington Forum, co-hosted with Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress (@CSPC_DC), is underway today in the heart of DC! The Forum brings together leading voices from politics, policy, industry, academia, and select media to discuss national security under the theme “Winning Future Wars.” For media enquiries, please contact @R_Ritwij at [email protected].

The U.S. Under Secretary of War for Policy, the Honourable @USWPColby, has just concluded his session at the LDC Washington Forum, taking part in a keynote fireside conversation with Lord Salisbury, Chairman of the London Defence Conference. @CSPC_DC @LondonDefConf @DeptofWar

The LDC Washington Forum 2026, in partnership with @CSPC_DC, takes place on Wednesday 23 September in the heart of DC. Among our featured speakers is: @MassDara, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. @MassDara is a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program, where her work focuses on defence and security issues across the region. Prior to joining Carnegie, she was a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and a senior analyst for Russian military capabilities at the U.S. Department of Defense. The theme of this year’s LDC Washington Forum is Winning Future Wars. More speakers and information to come shortly. For sponsorship enquiries, please contact @georgie_krone at [email protected]. For media enquiries, please reach out to @R_Ritwij at [email protected].

The LDC Washington Forum 2026, in partnership with @CSPC_DC, takes place on Wednesday 23 September in the heart of DC. Among our featured speakers is: @daniel_flesch, Executive Director of the @DT_Alliance. Daniel Flesch is Executive Director of the Defense Technology Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening U.S. national security by leveraging allied defence capabilities and lessons learned from the Israeli and Ukrainian defence ecosystems. He is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Previously, Daniel served as Senior Policy Analyst for the Middle East and North Africa at The Heritage Foundation and advised aerospace and defence companies at Cherrill Consulting Group. The theme of this year’s LDC Washington Forum is Winning Future Wars. More speakers and information to come shortly. For sponsorship enquiries, please contact @georgie_krone at [email protected]. For media enquiries, please reach out to @R_Ritwij at [email protected].