Black Dawn
Scenario-Based Exercise
May 3, 2004
Black Dawn was a scenario-based exercise on catastrophic terrorism held in Brussels, Belgium on May 3, 2004.
The exercise gathered approximately 55 current and former senior officials and experts from the European Council, the European Commission, NATO, 15 member states and various international organizations to grapple with the challenges associated with preventing terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The primary aim of the exercise was to develop a set of actionable recommendations for the EU, NATO and individual European governments to prevent terrorists from acquiring and using WMD.
The exercise was designed to energize discussion and debate as various European countries and institutions enter into their policy and budget deliberations. Organized under the auspices of the Strengthening the Global Partnership project by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Black Dawn was held at the German Marshall Fund’s Transatlantic Center in Brussels.