September 24, 2018
CEPA Forum 2018
Program
Winning the 21st Century–Allied Strength and Solidarity
 
8:00 a.m.
Arrivals and Breakfast
 
8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
 
Peter B. Doran, President, CEPA
 
Opening Keynotes
 
Miroslav Lajčák, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Slovakia
LTG James F. Pasquarette, Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8, United States
 

Brexit and worries about transatlantic security cooperation have reinvigorated Europe’s defense debate, creating new multilateral and bilateral ties. How seriously should NATO allies take Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), which is part of the EU’s common defense and security policy? What role will be played by the EII—the French-inspired nine-member European Intervention Initiative? What role does the U.S. relationship with non-NATO Sweden and Finland play in regional defense thinking? Most importantly, how much might the EU help NATO with the vital question of improving military mobility through better infrastructure and smoother administration?
MODERATOR: Edward Lucas, Senior Vice President, CEPA

Ana Birchall, Vice Prime Minister for Romania's Strategic Partnerships' Implementation, Romania
Jacek Czaputowicz, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Poland
Miroslav Lajčák, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Slovakia
Linas Linkevičius, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lithuania

10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Break
 
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
PANEL II

Atlanticists are slowly and belatedly winning the argument for increased defense budgets. But spending on what? In 2017, only twelve countries out of 29 met NATO’s requirement that members spend over 20% of their defense budgets on equipment. The move to smart spending will require unprecedented international cooperation on procurement, greater specialization, and political leadership. Allies also need to spend more on defense infrastructure. In an era of fragmentation, how can the Alliance find the necessary cohesion?

MODERATOR: Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges (Ret.), Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies, CEPA
 
Mihai-Viorel Fifor, Minister of Defense, Romania
Jan Havránek, Policy Advisor, Policy Planning Unit of the Office of the Secretary General, NATO
Róbert Ondrejcsák, Deputy Minister of Defense, Slovakia
István Szabó, State Secretary of Defense, Hungary

12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
LUNCH KEYNOTE
Professor Timothy Garton Ash is the United Kingdom's foremost expert on European history and politics. He is the author of ten books of political writing or ‘history of the present,’ which have charted the transformation of Europe over nearly forty years. He is Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His essays appear regularly in the New York Review of Books and he writes a syndicated column on international affairs. His firsthand reportage on the collapse of communism in 1989-1991 won widespread acclaim.

Introduction

Janusz Bugajski, Senior Fellow, CEPA

Keynote

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

1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
SPOTLIGHT ON UKRAINE
Challenges and the Road Ahead: Insights from the Special Representative

Kurt Volker, Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, United States
 
2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
PANEL III

Military planners used to focus chiefly on technology’s ability to deal death at a distance. Now information operations, the targeted use of corruption, cyberattacks, and a host of other “hybrid warfare” tactics allow asymmetric aggression in which closed, autocratic countries can undermine open, democratic ones, often with minimal use of conventional military means. Western countries must adapt to these complex, fast-changing, and unprecedented threats, without sacrificing their core institutions and principles. How can this hybrid threat be contained?
 
MODERATOR: Brian Whitmore, Senior Fellow, CEPA

Audun Halvorsen, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway
Jānis Kažociņš, National Security Adviser, Latvia
Tomáš Petříček, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Czech Republic
Indrek Sirp, Director of the National Security and Defense Coordination of the Government Office, Estonia

3:15 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Break
 
3:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
PANEL IV
Technology is undermining old business models, but monopolists are fighting a hard rearguard action—and politicians and regulators are struggling to keep up. The interconnection of gas and electricity markets, tough application of antitrust rules, and vigorous diplomacy are all required. What means do U.S. allies have to diversify their energy supplies away from sole-source providers like Russia? What are the political and economic priorities to create a resilient, green, and cost-effective energy system in Central and Eastern Europe?
MODERATOR: Réka Szemerkényi, Executive Vice President, CEPA
 
Piotr Naimski, Secretary of State for Strategic Energy Infrastructure in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Poland
Sandra Oudkirk, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, United States 
Dominik Tolksdorf, Program Director, Foreign & Security Policy, Heinrich Boell Foundation North America
Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, Minister of Energy, Lithuania

5:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.
Invitation Only
Reception
Andrássy National Security Fellowship Reception

6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Invitation Only
CEPA Forum Award Dinner

WELCOME
H.E. Ivan Korčok, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Republic to the United States

INTRODUCTION

Peter B. Doran, President, CEPA

KENNAN KEYNOTE

General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, Commander of European Command and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
 
The CEPA FORUM is the leading annual transatlantic security conference in Washington, DC.
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