The Lennart Meri Conference is a high-level annual meeting at which foreign and security policy issues are discussed from the perspective of the Northern and Eastern parts of Europe. The next conference is planned for 14-16 May 2021.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the 14^th Lennart Meri Conference is postponed until May 2021. But in the meantime, we are bringing the spirit of the Lennart Meri Conference online. Over the coming months, we will be challenging leading foreign and security policy thinkers around the world to address topical issues.

The first Lennart Meri Conference talk:

The Different Faces of Identity and Politics Today

A conversation with the Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and the American thinker and political theorist Francis Fukuyama, Professor at Stanford University.

Identity is inevitable, says Professor Francis Fukuyama, but how to make it a solution and not a source of problems? How should one understand identity in an era of fear and hatred? Can identity help fight the decay of democratic institutions? What have been the different faces of identity through time?

In their sparkling conversation, Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Professor Francis Fukuyama focus on different aspects of identity and its impact in the world: The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.