Europe’s security architecture is being tested at its edges – in the Arctic, in Ukraine, and across the Caucasus and the Black Sea. These are not peripheral theatres. They are where the credibility of European deterrence is established or lost, and where the assumptions underpinning the continent’s post-Cold War order are being probed most systematically. Yet the states and societies bearing that pressure remain under-represented in the forums where European strategy is actually formed. The London Security Conference exists to correct that imbalance.
Convened at the National Liberal Club in London on September 7, 2026, the conference assembles policymakers, senior security practitioners, civil society leaders, and leading academics from across Europe for a day of sustained, candid exchange. Its subject is the full spectrum of pressure now applied to the continent: Russia’s continuing aggression, hybrid and cyber operations, economic coercion, and the deliberate erosion of democratic institutions.
The conference is convened by the European Liberal Forum, Liberal International, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Strategic European Governance and Resilience Institute and Radikale Venstre. Together they bring political reach across European party networks, established policy expertise, and direct standing in the frontline regions themselves. That coalition rests on a shared judgement: that the liberal tradition is not merely a set of commitments to be defended in principle, but a strategic proposition that must demonstrate strength and the capacity to defend itself in practice. Open societies endure where the will and the means to protect them are maintained.
Deliberations are structured around four thematic panels and an interactive workshop, each bringing high-level speakers from government, defence, and diplomacy into direct exchange with practitioners from the regions under discussion. The Next Battlefield: Emerging Technologies and European Defence examines emerging technologies and their consequences for European defence. Exposing Europe’s Black Sea blind spots: From crisis response to coherent strategy considers how the region might move from improvised crisis response to coherent strategy. Eastern Europe at a Turning Point: Strategies for Defence and Democratic Resilience addresses defence and democratic resilience in states facing sustained pressure on both fronts. Who Governs Arctic Security? Assessing the relevance of international bodies in a contested Arctic assesses the relevance of existing international bodies in an increasingly contested North. Together the panels are designed to connect questions too often treated in isolation, tracing the common instruments of pressure applied across very different theatres.
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