Over seventy people attended the speech by Arnaud de Borchgrave at the Gstaad Palace. After a long and outstanding career in journalism, de Borchgrave is now the Director of the Transnational Threats division at the CSIS, the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington DC. In this function, he spoke about the critical challenges of the 21st century. Commenting on the rapid evolution of technical resources as well as increasing religious fanaticism and terrorism, de Borchgrave painted a rather pessimistic view of the near future at this the third edition of the Gstaad Symposium (the second in which de Borchgrave has spoken: see Gstaad Symposium: little chance for improvement in the Middle East).

Arnaud de Borchgrave together with his wife Alexandra, the author of the book 'Healing Light' which assembles letters of 9/11 orphans to their parents.

Whilst the 90s were dominated by the fall of communism and the emergence of the US as a superpower, the beginning of the new millennium was overshadowed by the 9/11 attacks in New York and the Iraq war. De Borchgrave now foresees a decade of what he (and Donald Rumsfeld) call “The unknown unknowns”, especially regarding the reaction of the Muslim world to the US siege between the Euphrates and the Hindu Kush (not a hint of political slant, eh?). Iran in particular seems to be a threat as it reinforces its nuclear program. The anti-terrorism strategy adopted by the US under the Bush administration is, according to de Borchgrave, a total failure, demonstrated by the fact that attacks such as suicide bombings have increased significantly in the region after the fall of Saddam Hussein. With the war in Iraq being a total disaster in both human and economic terms, Bush might want to save his presidency with a victory over Iran. If the US were to attack Iran, this would lead to an unparalleled calamity on a global scale. The march of time works against peace; nuclear and biochemical weapons leave the threat of another 9/11 hanging in the air. The rise of worldwide terrorist networks seems to be a particular danger which is, at the same time, very hard to control. With an estimated 200 dangerous networks in the UK, and with counterparts in most EU countries, the threat is real and is growing rapidly mainly via the internet. De Borchgrave believes the quickening development of technology will initialize a new era of radical changes never before seen in human history.

The crowd comprised all the usual suspects who gather for these kinds of things in Gstaad. Scroll down for the photos (click to enlarge):

Below, Gstaad Palace hosts Laura Scherz with Ernst A Scherz.

Below, Carlos Fix and another regular speaker in Gstaad, BBC historian Bettany Highes.

Below from left, Bettany Hughes, Stanley Weiss, and Peter Notz.

Below, Baroness de Dietrich (left) with Ninette Fix.