The Future Maritime Leaders’ Laboratory was led by the Centre for Grand Strategy and hosted at Strand Campus, King’s College London. The activity was designed as an interactive seminar-like session to debate three concepts explored throughout the conference. The objectives are twofold: to create a wider intergenerational community of practice and establish and cultivate a close-knit network of young professionals working on maritime affairs.
The Laboratory aimed to include some 60 next generation of maritime leaders, drawing from a wider community of academic and practitioners. Drawing upon the conference’s main theme, the Centre for Grand Strategy set the tone of the proceedings with an initial briefing on the conference’s main topics delivered by Prof. Alessio Patalano. The briefing led to small group discussions (one group for each theme with a supervisor from the KCL CfGS) with one of the questions below leading the task for the group. Each group prepared a short presentation to articulate their specific answer to the question.
The Laboratory investigated three questions:
- How can naval engagement be integrated into national diplomacy?
- What does deterrence at sea mean in an age of competition?
- What does innovation mean for modern navies?
