The first Working Group Conference Call on border security took place on February 21, 2013. The aim of the call was to touch base and discuss policy ideas that will be discussed at future International Border Security Forum workshops. There were over a dozen countries represented at the call including: the U.S., Canada, U.K., Israel, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Finland. Members of international institutions such as: NATO, OSCE, FRONTEX, IOM and the Council of the EU were also part of the call.

The conversation consisted of two expert briefings. The first was provided by Raphael Ron, President of the New Age Security Solutions, former Head of Security at the Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport. During his presentation, Mr. Ron has argued that airports are critical assets and will remain a high priority in any national security strategy. The “one size fits all” traditional policy will be replaced by a “risk management“ strategy that relies on strategic, tactical, and “real time” intelligence. This intelligence is to be improved by extensive information sharing between agencies that deal with risk-analysis and is to be run on four levels: national, local, tactical, and real-time. Mr. Ron said that: “A comprehensive, inclusive cross agency program will dramatically improve the performance of all agencies at the airport.” He also remarked that current risk assessment practices require awareness systems that adapt to changing situation ‘on the ground,’ and emerging technologies should be able to improve the process. The high-tech equipment as well as programs need to be operated by very well skilled, highly trained and intellectually capable security manpower that will be able to take decisions based on the available information and risk analysis. Only with professional staff and well-functioning information sharing, as well as risk analysis, are we able to determine and prevent real-time threats.

During the second presentation, Edgar Beugels, Head of Research and Development Unit at FRONTEX talked about FRONTEX’s 2013 border security objectives and developments. He said that FRONTEX is working on improving its situational awareness and reaction capability, detecting illegal migration, and preventing loss of life at sea. Its strategy is to develop ‘smart borders’ with minimum level of security around the EU/Schengen area and advanced risk management (ARM) approach to be used for the flow of travelers via border crossing points. Some further developments include: improving the Virtual Border concept and Visa Information System (VIS) that verifies passengers according to their biometrics. Mr. Beugels has also said that FRONTEX is working on establishing a better connection between the academic/research world and border security, and also through the engagement of states outside the European Union.

A Q&A session followed the presentations. One participant asked about evaluating and managing the risk of people, who may not appear to be terrorists, but might have hostile intentions and whether or not there are any existing programs to address this concern.

Mr. Ron said that there are no existing methods designed to specifically assess people who may have hostile intentions at the airports, but there are ways to obtain passenger information prior to their flights. If there has been any hostile activities in the passenger's past, security officers would be alerted. At the airport, this assessment could only work during direct interaction with the passenger. When asked whether successful cooperation between the U.S. and Europe on border security is feasible, both presenters were optimistic, but said that much depends on the sharing of both information and technology.