Watch the Videos- Baltic Sea Security Conference 2022: Transatlantic Response to China’s Presence in the Baltic Sea Region
The Baltic Security Foundation, Baltic American Freedom Foundation and Jamestown Foundation were proud to host the 2022 Baltic Sea Security Conference on the Transatlantic response to China’s presence in the Baltic Sea Region on August 17 at the Hotel Adlon Kempinski in Berlin, Germany.
The Euroatlantic states sharing the Baltic Sea have been subject to persistent security threats that have made them seek international solutions to maintain peace and stability. Challenges associated with Russia have been at the forefront for decades and are so today with its war against Ukraine. Meanwhile over the last decade the regional presence of China has increased – welcomed by many but analyzed by few. The security implications are beyond national and require a focus across NATO to find the best response.
The Baltic Sea Security Conference will gather experts in Berlin to review China’s presence in the Baltic Sea region. Organized by the Baltic Security Foundation, the Jamestown Foundation and the Baltic-American Freedom Foundation, the conference showcases the project “China and the Baltic: Mapping a Transatlantic Response to Chinese Inroads in the Nordic-Baltic Region.”
The speakers will discuss national case studies on the said presence in the areas of infrastructure, education and finance. The primary geographic focus of this study includes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway, as well as Denmark and Greenland.
The participants of the conference will be able to discuss the current state, perception and reaction connected with China’s presence at the Baltic Sea region. They will also be able to discuss the national, European and NATO security implications of the said presence.
Between Brussels and Beijing: Transatlantic Response to China’s Presence in the Baltic Sea Region
Keynote, Glen Grant, Baltic Security Foundation
Panel Discussion on the Education Domain
Moderator: Otto Tabuns, Baltic Security Foundation
Lukas Andriukaitis, Civic Resilience Initiative, Lithuania
Patrycja Pendrakowska, Boym Institute, Poland
Nicolaas Stijn Groenendijk, Inland University, Norway
Tobias Kollakowski, German Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, Germany
Keynote, Roger Robinson Jr., PSSI
Panel Discussion on the Finance Domain
Moderator: Christopher Cutrone, Baltic Security Foundation
Aleksandra Kuczyńska Zonik, Institute of Central Europe, Poland
Linas Skirius, Civic Resilience Initiative, Lithuania
Nicolaas Stijn Groenendijk, Inland University, Norway
Søren Dosenrode, Aalborg University Denmark
Panel Discussion on the Infrastructure Domain
Moderator: Olevs Nikers, Baltic Security Foundation
Pawel Behrendt, Boym Institute, Poland
Matti Puranen, Finnish National Defense University, Finland
Karoline Sommer, Aalborg University, Denmark
Didi Kirsten Tatlow, Journalist, Germany
Speaker Biographies
Lukas Andriukaitis is a Board member of Civic Resilience Initiative (CRI), Associate Director at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and an Associate Analyst at the Vilnius Institute for Policy Analysis. He has previously held the positions of an officer at the Special Purpose Service of the Lithuanian Special Operations Forces, as well as the Deputy Head of the Strategic Planning Division at the State Railway Inspectorate under the Ministry of Transport and Communication.
Pawel Behrendt is a Political Science Dr candidate at the University of Vienna. He is the Chair of the Board at the Boym Institute in Warsaw and a regular contributor to konflikty.pl.
Christopher Cutrone is researcher at the Baltic Security foundation. He studies Intelligence as an Instrument of Statecraft and the European Region at the Texas A&M University, Bush School of Government & Public Service, College Station.
Søren Dosenrode is the head of Regional and International Studies (REGIS) at the Aalborg University, Denmark, and the research director and founder of the Aalborg Center for European Studies.
Glen Grant worked as a defence and reform expert in Ukraine working for the Ukrainian Institute for the Future. He is also a Senior Fellow in the UK Institute for Statecraft on their Building Integrity Initiative countering Russian influence. Glen graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the Junior Staff Course Warminster and the Joint Staff Defence College at the Royal Naval College Greenwich. His key work in the last twenty years has been delivering reform and change for defence and security organisations in Europe. He has worked in the Defence Ministries of Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Poland, Albania, Kosovo, Slovenia, Serbia and Chile. As a business consultant he has worked with telecoms, agriculture, publishing and manufacturing. During his 37 year military career Glen commanded the UK Military Prison and an Artillery battery of 8 tracked guns. He worked on the operational and policy staffs in many different British and NATO Headquarters and MOD UK. This work involved him supporting many operations including both Gulf wars, Bosnia and Kosovo. He was Defence Attaché in Finland, Estonia and Latvia. In 2016 Glen was Project Manager in MOD Ukraine running a one year UK funded project “Reform of Defence Housing” and in January 2018 published a groundbreaking paper on reform of the Ukraine military in the Kyiv Post. He is a skilled change manager with a Masters degree in the Leadership of Innovation and Change from York St John University in UK. Glen lives in Latvia and is a faculty member of Riga Business School lecturing on the Bachelor of Business Administration course in Strategy, HRM, Crisis Management and Entrepreneurship.
Nico Groenendijk is the professor of public policy, organization and innovation, at Inland University, Norway. From 2018-2021 he was associated with OsloMet University, first as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow, working on a two-year project on the governance of the European patent system, later as professor, doing research on sustainability and public procurement. He was also visiting professor in European Studies, at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu (Estonia), from 2014-2021.
Tobias Kollakowski is a research Fellow at the German Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.
Aleksandra Kuczyńska-Zonik is the head of the Department of the Baltics at the Institute of Central Europe. She is also a Research Assistant at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. She holds doctoral degrees from the Faculty of Political Science at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland (2015) and from the Faculty of Sociology and History at the University of Rzeszów, Poland (2013).
Olevs Nikers is a Dr candidate at the Riga Stradins University, President of the Baltic Security Foundation, Senior Analyst at The Jamestown Foundation and an associate researcher at the Latvian Institute of International Affairs. From 2001 to 2019, Nikers worked at the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia. As a Senior Expert there, among the other issues, he has been responsible for preparing the Latvian contingent for participation in the international missions, as well as for planning, coordinating and implementing logistics projects for the International Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF). Nikers obtained a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Latvia in 2001, as well as a Master’s degree as a Fulbright Alumni – International relations from The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, Class 2016.
Patrycja Pendrakowska is the head and the founder of the Boym Institute of Asian and Global Studies in Warsaw. She is a Dr candidate at the Humboldt University in Berlin, and teaches on political ideas in China at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Warsaw. She graduated from financial law, ethnology, philosophy and sinology at the University of Warsaw.
Matti Puranen is a Senior Researcher at the Finnish National Defence University, where he conducts research on Chinese foreign relations and military strategy.
Linas Skirius is co-founder of the Civic Resilience Initiative, Lithuania.
Karoline Sommer holds a Masters degree in Administration and is an Administration Science Dr candidate at the University of Greenland, Ilisimatusarfik. Her master thesis focused on U.S. military presence in Greenland, the 1951 U.S.-Danish defense agreement, defense of Greenland and environmental issues. She is a former member of the independent documentation group on foreign and security policy in Greenland between the U.S. and Denmark during World War II and the Cold War. Her scientific area is the Great Power Rivalry in the Arctic and the security implications.
Otto Tabuns is director of the Baltic Security Foundation. With a background in international law and political science, Tabuns has worked on foreign and defense policy for ten years between the public service and European and American non-governmental organizations. He is a co-editor of four books on regional security and co-hosts the Latvia Weekly show on current political affairs.
Didi Kirsten Tatlow is a journalist, former senior Fellow at the Asia Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin, Germany, and a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at Projekt Sinopsis in Prague, Czechia. She researches, speaks and publishes widely on the political system of China and its impact on Europe, technology and worldwide transfer, democratic security, ideology, disinformation, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
