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Lennart Meri Conference 2023

12-14 May 2023 · Radisson Collection Hotel, Tallinn

Three days packed with insights by distinguished policymakers, analysts, politicians, military officials and academia from around the globe in Tallinn, Estonia. Key foreign and security policy issues discussed mostly from the perspective of the northern and eastern parts of Europe.

Conference Agenda

Agenda

You can watch again the public panel discussions that were not restricted by the Chatham House Rule. Links to the recordings, photo galleries and introductions are available under each discussion.

Read more

Some key messages

Recaps

Articles

ZUMAPRESS.com/Scanpix

US Democracy: A Second Heart Attack?

On 6 January 2021, America suffered a massive heart attack. The entire world watched as Washington, the seat of national power, a symbol of international egalitarianism, and the last remaining superpower was engulfed in a smoky cauldron of violent anarchy. When the sun set, it…

LMC 2023
Reuters/Scanpix

Turkish Foreign Policy in Shifting Political Landscapes

Following WWII, Türkiye linked its security to the Western defence system, joining NATO in 1952. This connection protected it against Soviet expansionism, helped modernise and expand its armed forces, and integrate them with the community of democracies that it aspired to join. Also, Türkiye’s economy…

LMC 2023
AP/Scanpix

The Migration Trap: A Southern Flank Perspective

Since the 2015 crisis, migration has become the biggest Achilles heel of the EU’s solidarity as the discrepancy in the impact of migration on the southern, northern, and central and eastern European (CEE) countries steadily challenges a common action.

AFP/Scanpix

The Shifting Patterns of Alliances in the Middle East: Surveying the Fluid Geostrategic Landscape

When Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many commentators in the West expected that the US allies in the Middle East would be the key players in tightening the Western sanctions on Russia. But this was not the case.

LMC 2023
AP/Scanpix

The War in Ukraine, Democracy, and the Global South: We Have a Problem

In the last few months, there has been a flurry of discussion about the lack of support that the United States and its European allies have received from the Global South. To some, its reaction to the war raging in Ukraine might even seem counterproductive.…

LMC 2023
AFP/Scanpix

The European Security Conundrum: Between “Strategic Autonomy” and Alliance

The issue of European security is often misunderstood because it covers multiple realities. Guaranteeing Europe’s security means preparing for an attack on its territory, which increasingly coincides with that of NATO members.

LMC 2023

Speakers

Alar Karis

President of Estonia
Kaja Kallas

Kaja Kallas

Prime Minister of Estonia

Krišjānis Kariņš

Prime Minister of Latvia

Ingrida Šimonytė

Prime Minister of Lithuania

Timothy Garton Ash

Professor of European Studies at University of Oxford

Margrethe Vestager

Executive Vice-president of the European Commission and Commissioner

Christopher G Cavoli

Commander of the US European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe

Fiona Hill

Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Foundation and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution

Karel Řehka

Chief of Defence of the Czech Republic

Constanze Stelzenmüller

Director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution
Susan Glasser

Susan B Glasser

Staff Writer at The New Yorker

Greg Yudin

Professor at The Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and Visiting Research Scholar at Princeton University

Anna Wieslander

Director for Northern Europe at the Atlantic Council and Secretary General of the Swedish Defence Association

Elina Valtonen

Member of the Finnish Parliament and Vice-Chair of the National Coalition Party

Akiko Fukushima

Senior Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research

Thomas Bagger

Ambassador of Germany in Poland

Supporters and Partners

About Lennart Meri Conference

“We can never have too much security,” said President Lennart Meri. To mark his continuing legacy in foreign and security policy thinking, the annual Lennart Meri Conference aims to encourage curiosity and debate, highlight unity and diversity, and foster liberty and democracy.