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Aspen – Otago National Security Forum

Australian-New Zealand National Security: Shared Threats, Shared Solutions

Date: Saturday, 11 October 2025
Location: The Aspen-Otago National Security Forum, QT Hotel, Queenstown, New Zealand

2025 is the sixth year of the Otago National Security School. We are commemorating that with a joint venture with Aspen New Zealand, an associate of the Aspen Strategy Group, which runs the substantially larger Aspen Security Forum each year in Colorado and Washington D.C. We are also partnering with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

The topic for this year’s Forum will be Australian-New Zealand National Security: Shared Threats, Shared Solutions. A range of New Zealand, Australian and international speakers will be announced shortly.

They will present on topics including:

  • Shared Threats: The Australian-New Zealand threat landscape
  • Five Eyes on youth radicalisation
  • Challenges for the National Security System and structure
  • Espionage and AI
  • Pacific security
  • Foreign influence
  • Modernising the Australian-New Zealand alliance
  • Australian and New Zealand strategy in the Antarctic
  • South Korea needs a nuclear deterrent: The implications for regional security

Programme

Visit our Aspen-Otago National Security Forum programme

Speakers

Andrew Hampton

Director-General, New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS)

Andrew Clark

Director-General, Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB)

Richard Schmidt

Deputy Secretary, Defence Policy and Planning
NZ Ministry of Defence

Anne Neuberger

Former Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor in the Biden Administration (USA)

Chris Taylor

Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)

Liz Buchanan

Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)

Stephen Dziedzic (to be confirmed)

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Lieutenant General (retired) In-bum Chun

Former Deputy Chief of Staff, ROK/US Combined Forces Command, South Korea

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