In the CEPA Forum’s Lunch Keynote, CEPA Senior Fellow Janusz Bugjaski introduced the topic—“Can We Still Realize the Promise of 1989?”—by distinguishing between the Cold War and post-Cold War eras: fundamentally, the hopes and promises of 1989 were about having no more dictatorships and no more foreign domination. Professor Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, then delivered the Lunch Keynote. He recalled that in 1989, no one knew what would happen in the post-Communist space. Although NATO ascension was actively opposed at the time by some, the countries remain within NATO to this day. Currently, we are witnessing an anti-1989 movement, where revanchist Russia and China are serious global competitors. This will be a long struggle whose outcome will depend on the political engagement of the ‘1989ers,’ the next generation. Ultimately, a majority of people around the world support democratic values – so we can still realize the promise of 1989.

INTRODUCTION

Janusz Bugajski Senior Fellow, CEPA

Keynote

Timothy Garton Ash Professor of European Studies, Oxford University and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University