2022 / 01 / 11

Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (Rondeli Foundation) organized the Rondeli Security Conference on January 18-19, 2022.

After democracy’s repeated triumphs of the 20th century, it is once again under attack as the human civilization’s main system of governance in the 21st. The autocratic countries are deepening their alignment with one another, seeking to unseat the United States from its position of the global leader, and to transform the global order that presently is founded on the ideas of liberty. Like many other regions, the South Caucasus and the Eastern Europe are involved in this struggle, with Russia aggressively trying to restore its geopolitical dominance over its former imperial possessions.

At the Rondeli Security Conference, we shall discuss some of the main issues concerning the Russian attempt at imperial resurgence. Does the West have a coherent strategic vision for opposing Russia’s aggressive foreign strategy? What will be the fate of democracy in Georgia, and of Georgia’s pro-Western foreign policy? What impact does the outcome of the Nagorno-Karabakh War of 2020 have on the regional security in the South Caucasus? How the Black Sea region security situation is going to develop? What is the perspective for the newly established “Association Trio” of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine? These are only a few of many pertinent questions we shall seek to find answers.

 

Agenda

Day 1 – January 18, 2022

09:50 – 10:00

Welcome Remarks

Ekaterine Metreveli, President, Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (Rondeli Foundation).

 

10:00 – 11:30

SESSION 1. Western Response to the Russian Resurgence

Moderator: Giorgi Badridze, Senior Fellow, Rondeli Foundation.

Speakers:

Nicolas Tenser, Academician, Writer, Editor of the Journal Le Banquet (France).

Ian Bond, Director of Foreign Policy at Centre for European Reform (UK).

Maria Domańska, Senior Fellow, OSW (Center for Eastern Studies) (Poland).

Kristi Raik, Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at the ICDS (Estonia).

Klaus Larres, the Richard M Krasno Distinguished Professor of History & International Affairs at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill (USA).

 

12:00 – 13:40

SESSION 2. The Balance of Power in the South Caucasus Region After the 2020 War in Nagorno-Karabakh

Moderator: Ekaterine Metreveli, President, Rondeli Foundation.

Speakers:

Benyamin Poghosyan, Chairman, Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies (Armenia).

Farid Shafiyev, Ambassador, Chairman of the Center of Analysis of International Relations (AIR Center) (Azerbaijan).

Sinan Ülgen, Chairman of the Istanbul-based EDAM think tank, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe (Turkey).

Sergey Utkin, Head of Group for Strategic Assessment, Lead Researcher, Center for Situational Analysis, IMEMO Russian Academy of Science (Russia).

Kayhan Barzegar, Centre for Iranian Studies Associate Member (Iran).

 

15:10 – 16:40

SESSION 3. Afghanistan – Rethinking the Paradigm

Moderator: Shota Utiashvili, Senior Fellow, Rondeli Foundation.

Speakers:

Yang Jian, Vice President, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China).

Akram Umarov, Senior Research Fellow, The University of World Economy and Diplomacy (Uzbekistan).

Jenifer Brick Murtazashvili, Founding director of the Center for Governing and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh, nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace (CEIP); (US).

 

17:00 – 18:00

SESSION 4. Georgia’s Dilemma – No Right to Fail

Moderator: Kornely Kakachia, Director, Georgian Institute of Politics.

Speakers:

Ghia Nodia, Director, Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD).

Jonathan D. Katz, Senior Fellow and Director, Democracy Initiatives, the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Alex Petriashvili, Senior Fellow, Rondeli Foundation.

 

Day 2 – January 19, 2022

10:00- 11:30

SESSION 5. Black Sea Region Security – Who Holds the Keys?

Moderator: Alex Petriashvili, Senior Fellow, Rondeli Foundation

Speakers:

Iulian Chifu, the State Counsellor of the Romanian Prime Minister for Foreign relations, Security and strategic affairs (Romania).

Hanna Shelest, Director of Security Programmes at Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism”, Editor-in-Chief at Ukraine Analytica (Ukraine).

Amanda Paul, Senior Policy Analyst, European Policy Centre (EPC) (Belgium).

 

11:50 – 13:20

SESSION 6. Associated Trio Is Established, What Is Next?

Moderator: Kakha Gogolashvili, Director of EU Studies at the Rondeli Foundation.

Speakers:

Andrius Kubilius, MEP, Co-President of the EURONEST.

Michael Emerson, Associated Senior Fellow, CEPS.

Dmytro Shulga, European Program Director at International Renaissance Foundation (Ukraine).

Iulian Groza, Director for European Policies and Reforms (Moldova).