Lennart Meri Conference 2019, entitled “One Past, Many Futures”, will take place in Tallinn from 17th to 19th May and focus on foreign, defence and security policy in discussions bringing together political leaders, policy makers, researchers, and future movers and shakers from all over the world.
The list of speakers includes President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid and President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili, former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves as well as Germany’s Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen, Slovakia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajčák and several other ministers.
Intensive debates and fresh insights will be joined among others by Alexey Levinson, Head of Yuri Levada Analytical Centre; Zhanna Nemtsova, Founder of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom; author Oliver Bullough; Alan Riley, Senior Researcher of the Atlantic Council; Constanze Stelzenmüller, Robert Bosch Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution; Akilnathan Logeswaran, Founder of Stand Up for Europe, listed by Forbes “30 under 30: Law and Policy” in 2018 and Ulrike Franke, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).
According to the director of LMC 2019, Eeva Eek-Pajuste the conference aims to make the voices of young generation policy makers heard: “The young thinkers of today will be shaping policy in 10-15 years, their values, attitudes and beliefs are developing now. It is wise to listen to them in order to grasp the new trends taking shape in the society.”
Just a week ahead of the European Parliament elections LMC will address the root causes of people feeling alienated from power, rise of populism and extreme views. As NATO celebrates the 70th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty, transatlantic relations are as endangered as they are vitally important. And more broadly, the policy choices of the US worry allies and cheer adversaries across the globe. The aspirations and changing roles of China, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia present new challenges. Cyberspace and the information domain are largely ungoverned, encouraging conflict without rules.
Lennart Meri, whose 90th anniversary we celebrate this year, said that, “Europe has one past, but an infinite number of futures.” To mark president Meri’s continuing legacy in foreign and security policy thinking, the conference panels and the conference itself are named after quotations from his speeches.
The programme of the LMC 2019 will be published in the beginning of May on the event website. The conference takes place at the Radisson Blu Sky Hotel in Tallinn and is accessible by invitation only. The public panels of the conference be live streamed.
LMC is organised by the International Centre for Defense and Security (ICDS) and Lennart Meri European Foundation.