Peace, Security and Defence Summit – beyond the aftermath: envisioning the new security normal

The former president of Lithuania and European commissioner, Dalia Grybauskaitė currently serves as the Co-Chair of the United Nations High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (FACTI). Previously, she has chaired the Council of Women World Leaders and held several positions as a Lithuanian diplomat and politician, including as the country’s finance minister, as well as minister plenipotentiary at the Lithuanian embassy to the United States and at the Lithuanian Mission to the EU. Notably, Grybauskaitė played a key role in improving the relations between Lithuania and the EU as the deputy chief negotiator of Lithuania’s Association Agreement with the EU.

Margarita Šešelgytė is the Director of VU TSPMI, prior to which she served as its deputy director for studies. She has also been the deputy director of the Baltic Defence College and the Jonas Žemaitis Lithuanian Military Academy. She is an honorary member of the Baltic Defense College and sits on the boards of the Ares Group and the Baltic Defense College’s Baltic Security and Defense Review magazine. Her main research interests include EU foreign and security policy, security and defence studies, international relations and foreign policy analysis.

Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra Kanani was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.

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.

Paul Taylor is a Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe and the author of the think tank’s European Defence Cooperation report series. He previously spent four decades working for Reuters as a foreign correspondent in Paris, Tehran, Bonn and Brussels, as bureau chief in Israel/Palestine, Berlin and Brussels, as chief correspondent in France, as diplomatic editor in London, and finally as European affairs editor. Taylor’s assignments have included covering the Iranian revolution, the Cold War Euromissile crisis, the 1991 Gulf War, German reunification, the Maastricht summit, France in the 1990s, EU enlargement, the Eurozone crisis and the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt.

Before joining the EEAS, Benedikta von Seherr-Thoss has held several positions within the German Ministry of Defence, including as security policy director, head of the EU Division and coordinator of the German Presidency of the EU Council, and political advisor to then-Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen. She has also worked for NATO at its Liaison Office to the UN, as well as in Afghanistan as the deputy director of policy and senior political advisor to the NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan.

Rihards Bambals is the Head of Strategic Communications at the Latvian State Chancellery. Before returning to Latvia to apply his international know-how to build national StratCom capacities, Bambals served as a career diplomat for over a decade, gaining expert experience in foreign and security policy. Most notably, he was a seconded StratCom expert at the European External Action Service (EEAS) East StratCom Task Force and the Latvian Permanent Delegation to NATO. Bambals previously held the Tokyo Foundation’s Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship in recognition of his research on human security in Japan before and after the triple disaster of March 2011.

Prior to his current position, James Appathurai has served as the deputy assistant secretary general for political affairs and security policy, and as the NATO Secretary General’s special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia. He has also held several other positions within NATO, including as NATO spokesperson and as deputy head and senior planning officer for the policy planning and speechwriting section of the political affairs division. Before joining NATO, he was a policy officer at Canada’s Department of Defence.

Ruben-Erik Diaz-Plaja is a Senior Policy Adviser in the Policy Planning Unit at the Office of the Secretary General of NATO in Brussels, where he contributes to developing, negotiating and implementing strategic policy priorities for the Secretary General, as well as conducting research and foresight. In this role, he has contributed to developing the 2022 Strategic Concept; the NATO 2030 agenda; the 2021 Climate Change and Security Action Plan; and a comprehensive reform of NATO HQ. Diaz-Plaja has also led work on NATO’s partnerships in the Political Affairs and Security Policy Division. He maintains 15 years of experience at the intersection of defence, security and democratic governance in the wider Euro-Atlantic region, including with the OSCE in Warsaw, Poland and Kosovo to build democratic institutions in eastern Europe and the Balkans.

Hanna Linderstål is the CEO and Founder of Earhart Business Protection Agency, a cyber intelligence specialist agency that supports authorities, organisations and the private sector with management advisory regarding cyberthreats, disinformation, investigations, corporate education, as well as training in these matters. With over 25 years of experience in combatting digital and virtual threats, she has previously been an advisor for various government agencies and international organisations. Linderstål is active in the Council for Psychological Defence in Sweden and acts as Vice President of the Swedish Psychological Operations Association, a voluntary defence organisation.

Prior to founding Orbis, Christopher Steele worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service for 22 years. At MI6, he led the Russia desk during his last years of service, prior to which he was senior officer at the MI6. Steele has previous experience at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and several British embassies, including those in France and to the Federation of Russia.

Dr Nerijus Maliukevičius lectures at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, where his research focuses on information warfare, strategic communication, conflict management and Russian politics. He is the author of two books on Russian information warfare strategies.  His doctoral dissertation focused mainly on the geopolitical potential of Russian information and its dissemination in Lithuania.

Specialised in EU regulatory and public affairs, Karen Massin currently leads Google’s EU government affairs and public policy operations in Brussels. She previously served as the CEO of public affairs consultancy BCW in Brussels, in which role she coordinated government affairs and communication consultancy with a focus on EU and international policy, as well as provided policy council and intelligence on EU public affairs issues.

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mantas Adomėnas supervises the shaping of Lithuania’s foreign affairs policy and the country’s role in multilateral institutions, as well as the neighbourhood policy and relations towards eastern Europe, Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Adomėnas is a former member of the Lithuanian parliament and has served as an advisor to the deputy speaker. Previously, he was a lecturer at the Universities of Cambridge and Vilnius, and has also served as the director of the international programme at the Civil Society Institute.

Prior to assuming her current position, Delphine Colard held several positions at the European Parliament, including as the press officer on institutional affairs and on Belgium. Before joining the European Parliament, she was the deputy spokesperson at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Colard has also worked at the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU on interinstitutional relations, in which role she was responsible for relations with the European Parliament.

Prior to assuming her current position, Kyllike Sillaste-Elling has held several positions at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including as director-general of the department for NATO and transatlantic relations, permanent representative of Estonia to NATO and director-general of the minister’s office. She has also worked as the undersecretary for political affairs and as deputy head of the Estonian embassy in the United States, as well as a foreign policy advisor to the Estonian prime minister and the first secretary at the Estonian embassy in the United Kingdom.

Ambassador Baiba Braže is the head of the Public Diplomacy Division at NATO. Prior her current position, she was a Latvian diplomat and served as the Ambassador of Latvia to the United Kingdom. She has also held several positions at the Latvian Foreign Ministry as Director General on Security Policy and International Organizations and Director General of the Communications Directorate. She has also been appointed Latvia’s Ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. She was also the head of the Europe Department and Foreign Policy and National Security Advisor to the Latvian Prime Minister.