Description of project

One year after the Madrid bombs, the Club of Madrid organised a unique conference, the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security. Its purpose was to build a common agenda on how the community of democratic nations can most effectively confront terrorism, in memory of its victims from across the world.

The Summit lasted from 8 to 11 march 2005 and brought together the world’s leading experts and most influential policymakers, as well as ordinary citizens from across the globe. Since terrorism is a global phenomenon requiring a global response, the objective was to provide an international forum to discuss pragmatic strategies, comparative lessons and concrete, forward-looking steps. Two hundred of the world’s leading experts created three working groups (namely “The Causes and Underlying Factors of Terrorism”, “Confronting Terrorism” and “Towards a Democratic Response”) and engaged in a process of intense debate to prepare the Madrid documents.

The result was an innovative plan of action – the Madrid Agenda– that strives to bring together the world’s nations to develop a common strategy for confronting terrorism in all its forms through democratic means. The outcome was the most comprehensive effort yet made at developing a truly democratic response to the terrorist threat.