The three-day conference was organized by the German Marshall Fund, bringing together defense ministers, academics and security analysts from around the world to explore ways of making the world a safer place to live.

Coming two weeks before NATO leaders meet in Lisbon, observers are also watching for clues on the future of the organization, missile defense, and NATO's plans for Afghanistan.

"We're meeting against a backdrop of complexity," said MacKay, pointing to last week's intercepted parcel bombs from Yemen "designed by terrorists to kill our citizens and disrupt our societies."

"We feel sometimes we're fighting 21st century challenges with outdated instruments," he said. "Clearly, we recognize that our institutions, our equipment and our understanding needs to evolve and to adapt to the new challenges we face."

A new "holistic" approach to security that fosters development and security in failing states and long-term partnerships is required, he said.

Traditional security dynamics such as police responsibilities for domestic security and militaries defending against foreign threats have been blurred by state and non-state actors operating across borders, he said.

"There is both a growing interplay and a blurring of the hard stops between security and defense," he said. "We need to think differently about security as a continuum of effort and effect."

Will Bohlen, spokesman for the German Marshall Fund, told AFP the conference aims to bolster "a holistic view of security and defense ... (tackling threats) from all different viewpoints: military, politics, business, and academia."

"Traditional topics will include NATO, nuclear weapons, and that sort of thing, but we'll also touch on soft power issues such as the defense response to humanitarian crises; this is a new topic that we're dealing with this year," he said.

Panelists include Canada's central bank governor Mark Carney, Denmark's Minister of Defense Gitte Lillelund Bech, Supreme Allied Commander for NATO transformation Stephane Abrial, Palestinian Economic Council Minister Mohamed Shtayyeh and Saad Mohseni, the director of Moby Media Group described by The New Yorker magazine as "Afghanistan's first media mogul."

They would be joined by representatives from Albania, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Mongolia, Norway, Serbia, South Korea, Spain and Turkey.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano also planned to meet on the conference sidelines to discuss North American security challenges.

The US delegation, including US Senator John McCain, however, was delayed after strong winds made it too dangerous for their jet to land in Halifax.

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