A New Security Policy for Eastern Europe?

In its modern history, since the Cold War, Europe has never been more challenged internally and externally to preserve its liberal values, identity, integrity and peace.  And while several years ago it was almost impossible to imagine to what extent terrorism will spread across Europe or that borders in Europe will be changed again by force, nowadays we are confronted with constantly and very often asymmetrically changing realities and challenges. It is becoming much harder to assume what will happen next.

It is in this light that the Regional Office for East and Southeast Europe of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (“FNF”) has decided to devote our annual consultation on the “Future of Freedom” to the overarching theme of “A New Security Policy for Eastern Europe?”.  Furthermore, the consultation will address the following three subtopics:

• “NATO and the Different Perspectives in Security Demands in Eastern Europe”
• “Hybrid Warfare and Propaganda”
• “Cyber War and Its Challenges”

The event will take place in Kharkiv, Ukraine from 28th to 31th May. 

FNF is honoured to have the following distinguished keynote speakers:  Anatoliy Hrytsenko, leader of the Civic Position Party, former Minister of Defence of Ukraine; Taavi Roivas, Vice President of the Estonian Parliament, former Prime Minister of Estonia and former leader of the Estonian Reform Party;  Henrik Bach Mortensen, Vice President ALDE Party.   Furthermore, a plethora of international and local experts will enrich the different panel discussions on NATO, hybrid warfare, propaganda, cyber war and stimulate insightful debates. Interactive methodologies will enable the expert audience to contribute actively to the deliberations.  The programme includes field visits to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk to get first-hand perspective from the situation on the ground from local media, military, civil administration, volunteer organizations, and others.  

The main goals of this “Future of Freedom” consultation are as follows:

• to analyse current European security and geopolitical trends, its causes and effects;
• to identify possible threat and conflict scenarios;
• to look for alternatives to the current security arrangements;
• to debate and discuss various liberal options and solutions as far as the future security policy is concerned.

The participants of our consultation include representatives from FNF partner and ALDE parties and experts from FNF’s partner organizations, involved in research, advocacy, human rights protection, humanitarian work, conflict resolution as related to security and foreign policy issues.

Stay tuned for more soon.

You can download from here the official Concept Paper of the Consultation.