Democracy, decisions and defence - post-US election debate

Monica Sanders is an American scholar, research and activist from the University of Delaware, where she sits as Director for the Bill Anderson Fund. She also teaches at Georgetown University as Adjunct Lecturer. In addition, she sits on the Council of the Internet Society of DC. Prior to her current positions, Sanders served as the Senior Legal Advisor for International Response and Programs at the American Red Cross and was a Senior Committee Counsel for both the House of Representatives and Senate Committees on Homeland Security. As a journalist for CNN, she received a 2002 Emmy award for her work covering the September 11 attacks and the military engagement in Afghanistan that followed.

Radoslaw Sikorski is an expert on transatlantic relations and security issues. He served as Minister of Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Marshal of the Sejm (speaker of parliament) in Poland. As Deputy Minister of Defence, he initiated Poland’s NATO accession campaign. Sikorski was Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC and Executive Director of the New Atlantic Initiative, as well as appearing before the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs as an expert on Atlantic issues. He was named one of 2012’s top 100 global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine “for telling the truth, even when it’s not diplomatic”.

Retiring from NATO in September 2018 after 38 years at the organisation, Jamie Shea has occupied a number of senior positions at NATO across a wide range of areas, including external relations, press and media, and policy planning. As NATO’s spokesperson, he was the face of the alliance during the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts. He later worked as the director of policy planning in the private office of former secretary general Rasmussen during the preparation of NATO’s 2010 Strategic Concept. Shea is also a regular lecturer and conference speaker on NATO and European security affairs.