Securing Peace, Ensuring Power – with NATO’s Chair of the Military Committee Admiral Rob Bauer

Statement:
Today Room for Discussion was set to hold an hour-long interview with Admiral Rob Bauer, Chief of NATO's Military Committee. The interview was meant to cover the state of the war in Ukraine, NATO's challenges with coordination with members and the ideals and values that the allied defence organisation protects. About five minutes into the interview, protests started disrupting the interview by chanting statements at the Admiral and our interview platform, leading to the interview becoming inaudible. We then made a public statement emphasising the importance of discussion and dialogue, pleading with the protesters to discuss a potential compromise, so that the audience of more than 150 people would be able to continue listening to the interview. The protesters continued to assert that they would not let the interview go through.

The organisers considered options for continuing the interview in a lecture hall or via a livestream but due to security considerations these options were not a possibility. The interview was instead recorded in a private room. The interview will be available by tomorrow on our YouTube channel.

The whole Room for Discussion team deeply regrets how the events played out today and we express profound sadness over the loss of our opportunity to hold important, critical public discus-sions. After the interview, we approached the protesters to inquire how we could find a compromise for their presence and hold interviews with guests they disagreed with, they said there would be no way for them to not disrupt interviews with guests they disagreed with. This is a detrimental loss for our platform, where we interview a diverse range of guests with different political views, roles, and backgrounds. We did our very best in preparing this interview, and it is our sincere belief that it would have contributed to the current public discussion.

Finally, we would like to thank Admiral Bauer and his team for their flexibility and support.

Sincerely,
The Room for Discussion Committee
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War is back on the European Continent. Our safety and security are no longer a certainty. According to the United Nations, a new era of conflict has begun. For NATO that means: a new era of collective defence.

On March 26th, we will have Chair of the NATO Military Committee (CMC) Admiral Rob Bauer joining us for a frank conversation on stage. Recently, Admiral Bauer has called for a more “war-ready society”. What will that mean for our daily lives? How will NATO continue to deter aggression from Russia? What actions do governments and companies need to take to ensure our war readiness?
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