As technology alters the constraints that geography poses on nations, societies, and individuals, how will national security change? How will the fragmentation of society along lines of proximity, ethnicities, and belief systems evolve in an increasingly networked world? Is Brexit the beginning of disintegration for Europe, can Russia ever be brought in from the cold, and what role, if any, does the EU have to play in the tensions between the US and China?

In this National Security Podcast, Chris Farnham talks to Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the author of The Fog of Peace, on how nations will evolve and what that means for national – or even city-based – security. In a networked world of fragmenting societies, the impact of technology and the balkanisation of the tech sector will change how we relate to each other and how we identify, collectivise, and defend ourselves. We also discuss the ‘what now’ for Europe in the face of a disruptive Russia, and whether the two will ever find common ground.

Jean-Marie Guéhenno is a distinguished fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution and a member of the UN secretary-general's High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation. From 2014 to 2017, Guéhenno was president and CEO of the International Crisis Group. He is an expert in peacekeeping, global governance, and transnational security threats. As the undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations at the UN from 2000 to 2008, Guéhenno became the longest-serving head of peacekeeping. He led the biggest expansion of peacekeeping in the history of the UN.

Chris Farnham is the presenter of the National Security Podcast. He joined the National Security College in June 2015 and is currently Senior Outreach and Policy Officer. His career focus has been on geopolitics with experience working in and out of China for a number of years as well as operating in Australia and Southeast Asia.

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