The Aspen Institute and AGT International are pleased to launch the Ambassadors’ Security Roundtable, a new initiative to promote greater international understanding and cooperation in the critically important field of security.

The Ambassadors’ Security Roundtable will be a quarterly convening of ambassadors from around the globe. Participants will gather at the Aspen Institute’s Wye River campus on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to discuss region-specific security issues. Discussions will focus primarily on traditional “national security” issues like military or terror threats and diplomatic disputes; however, the topic is broad enough to encompass a wide range of other issues, recognizing that different countries and regions define the term differently and have differing security priorities and perspectives.

Each meeting will focus on a different region and set of topics of concern to that region. Participants at these meetings will include ambassadors from countries in the region and some of their key advisors, Aspen Institute staff, and representatives of AGT International.

The roundtables are presented by the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Program and AGT International.

In acknowledging this partnership, Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson said, “This generous grant will provide a forum for the diplomatic community in Washington to meet regularly to discuss security issues of individual and mutual concern. Out of this dialogue, we hope and expect that relationships will be formed that might not otherwise be, and, as a result, differences can be minimized, and cooperation can be maximized.”

Speaking to the need for such an initiative, Founder and CEO of AGT International Mati Kochavi said, “Our world today is being rapidly shaped by globalization, mobile technology and the internet. Although these developments are seeds for progress, they must be fully understood and appreciated in order to secure and manage in today’s uncertain and evolving environment.”

The inaugural convening will take place on October 22-23, with a focus on Europe. Ambassadors from a number of European countries will gather at Wye for a discussion of security issues nationally, regionally, and internationally of concern to them, and that discussion will be moderated by Foreign Policy magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Susan Glasser. The forum will start with a dinner discussion on the night of October 22, featuring former Acting and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence John McLaughlin in conversation with TIME’s Massimo Calabresi.

Given 2012’s being a presidential election year, the Roundtable will mark the occasion on November 8 with a post-election analysis of its national security implications at a luncheon at the Four Seasons in Washington for the entire diplomatic corps. The luncheon will feature former National Security Adviser to President Carter, Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, in conversation with CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jill Dougherty.

The Aspen Institute Homeland Security Program works to heighten public awareness as to the nation's continued vulnerability to terrorism, and to persuade the nation to take the necessary steps to close the gap between how secure we should be and how secure we actually are. For more information, please visit www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/homeland-security.

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. For more information, please visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

AGT International is a public safety and security solutions organization headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, with operations across the globe. It develops and implements intelligent, technology-based products and solutions that keep people, assets and infrastructure safe, in the areas of critical infrastructure and border protection, urban management, cyber security, transportation, law enforcement, and natural disaster preparedness. AGT International employs 2,400 people worldwide, representing more than 50 nationalities. The organization was founded in 2007, and is managing $8 billion in projects. AGT International is led by Founder and CEO, Mati Kochavi. For more information, please visit www.agtinternational.com.