On January 28, the Perry Center hosted its first webinar for the 2021 series “Regional Security and Defense: The Next Decade,” a conversation and reflections from the book “Desafíos para la seguridad y la defensa en el continente americano 2020-2030.” Book editor, Mr. Juan Pablo Toro, Executive Director, AthenaLab of Chile and chapter author Dr. José Robles Montoya, advisor for the Minister of Defense and researcher, Center for Higher National Studies (CAEN) of Peru shared their remarks on the subject.

Mr. Toro commented on common denominators across the entire Western Hemisphere (from Canada to Chile) citing examples such as combating natural disasters, the pandemic, and transnational organized crime. He emphasized that regional cooperation will be a way to pool resources and mentioned the need to plan based on lessons learned across the entirety of the state.

Dr. Robles Montoya started by thanking the armed forces for their work on combating the pandemic and commented on their important role in combating the effects of climate change. In addition, he noted that climate change is a multiplier of challenges and remarked that the cyber security challenge affects not just national security, but all systems.

Perry Center professor Dr. William Godnick moderated the event.