“Defensa y Yo: My Role as a Citizen Faced with New Threats Security and Defense Challenges
“Defensa y Yo” (“Defense and Me”) is a U.S. Embassy initiative in partnership with the Esglobal organization, which seeks to educate young people in defense and security issues. The project is composed of three phases, beginning with lecturesdebates in Spanish public universities on a variety of topics related to security and defense. During the second phase, students who attended the debates participate in a contest organized by the Embassy and Esglobal, proposing solutions to some of the security and defense challenges raised by the debates. Finally, a winner is selected from each university, with winning students traveling to Brussels to visit NATO headquarters and other security and defense institutions.
Defensa y Yo 3.0 (2022-2023)- Program is currently underway.
With the Defensa y Yo 3.0 Project, Esglobal and the U.S. Embassy in Spain seek to reinforce knowledge and understanding of the security and defense culture. The project is a continuation of the work undertaken since 2020 with the first two Defensa y Yo editions, with the participation of several Spanish public universities.
The program aims to help students recognize and understand the changing nature of security threats. To accomplish this, Esglobal and the U.S. Embassy have scheduled a variety of lecturesdebates in 16 Spanish universities through mid-2023. The lecturesdebates are followed by the contest, where students analyze how their generation could face one of the challenges raised by the lectures and propose possible solutions.
Winners of the contest, one per university, get to travel to Brussels to visit NATO headquarters and discover firsthand the center of Western defense. More information.
You can see the works of the first winners and the sessions of the conference series Defense y Yo at: https://www.esglobal.org/defensa-y-yo-3-0/
Previous editions
Defensa y Yo 2.0 (2022)
You can see the works of the winners and the sessions of the conference cycle Defensa y Yo 2.0. in: DEFENSA Y YO 2.0 – Esglobal – Política,
Defensa y Yo 1.0 (2021)
All the debates of this first edition can be viewed on the esglobal website, as well as the works of the winners: https://www.esglobal.org/concurso-defensa-y-yo/