Former Heads of State from CEE Met at Forum in VMU

On Friday 10 March, 2017, Vytautas Magnus University and Kaunas City Municipality co-hosted the first event dedicated to the approaching Centennial of the Restoration of the State of Lithuania– the 2nd Forum of the Baltic and Black Seas, a discussion with the historical leaders, former heads of state from Central and Eastern Europe.

The theme of the forum is “Europe Today. The Baltic Consensus (1987–1991): Historical Significance and Lessons for the Today’s World”. On the eve of 11 March, the Day of Restoration of Independence of Lithuania, the historical leaders, along with the academic community and other political, cultural and social figures, invited everyone to revive the historic memory, to look for new forms of dialogue, and to seek productive, good-neighbourly, responsible, and peace-promoting communication that is based on mutual trust and respect.

According to the EU Ambassador in Russian Federation, Vygaudas Ušackas, the success story of the Baltic States is like a beacon for the countries of the Black Sea region in their way of continuous development towards democracy, free market and mature civil society. “Amid geopolitical tensions, confrontations and threats it is worth listening to the wisdom of historical leaders who played a significant role in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reestablishment of statehood of their respective countries. Aiming to inspire faith in a dialogue and communication, Kaunas has summoned historical leaders in the name of security and prosperity, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and far beyond”, the Ambassador underscored the importance of the event.

It is no coincidence that the former Presidents of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Moldova, Slovakia, and Ukraine joined the search for solutions in an academic venue. In the face of global challenges and regional threats of the 21st century, it is necessary to remember the national struggles for democracy and freedom and to engage in a closer dialogue with the academic community, especially the young generation.

“It is both symbolic and meaningful that the forum will take place at Vytautas Magnus University: after being re-opened on the eve of the country’s independence by Lithuanian and diaspora scientists and intellectuals, this university became one of the first heralds of Lithuania’s freedom and a hub of humanist worldviews. Today, as we are standing once again at the doorstep of change, we call on everyone to turn to the ideals that led us towards democratization. In the name of peaceful solutions, we open the door for dialogue between the state and the citizens”, VMU Rector Prof. Juozas Augutis stated, highlighting the significance of universities in the considerations of the future.

The anticipated participants of the Forum of the Baltic and Black Seas included former European heads of state who in the recent past dared to change the course of Europe, to steer it towards democracy and to strive for an active civil society in independent countries: Valdas Adamkus (Lithuania), Vytautas Landsbergis (Lithuania), Viktor Yushchenko (Ukraine), Bronisław Komorowski (Poland), Leonid Kravchuk (Ukraine), Leonid Kuchma (Ukraine), Petru Lucinschi (Moldova), Arnold Rüütel (Estonia), Petar Stoyanov (Bulgaria), Rudolf Schuster (Slovakia), Valdis Zatlers (Latvia), Gennady Burbulis (Russia).

In the 1st Forum of the Baltic and Black Seas, which was organized in 2016, its participants signed the Kiev Manifest, which named the mission of united and purposeful peacekeeping as their goal. “Our common goal is to promote a system of values that is based on joint actions and ensures mutual understanding and support, along with a dialogue between generations and ideologies, the people and the state”, the manifest said.

The region of the Baltic and Black seas, which has been shaped by the diversity of nationalities, faiths, and cultures, has a long and shared history. The former heads of state emphasize that it is only democracy, peace, and complete renouncement of war and aggression that can help the European community of nations to ensure security in the region.

The event was organized by Vytautas Magnus University and Kaunas City Municipality. The forum was also supported by the project of the European Union “Public Diplomacy. EU and Russia”.

Historical leaders, participants of the Forum of the Baltic and Black Seas:

Valdas Adamkus, President of Lithuania (1998–2003 and 2004–2009), VMU Council Chairman, Honorary Doctor
Vytautas Landsbergis, the first head of state of the re-established independent Republic of Lithuania, the Chairman of the of the Supreme Council of Lithuania (1992, 1996–2000), VMU Honorary Doctor
Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine (2005–2010)
Leonid Kuchma, President of Ukraine (1994–2004)
Petru Lucinschi, President of Moldova (1996–2001)
Arnold Rüütel, President of Estonia (2001–2006)
Lech Wałesa, President of Poland (1990–1995)
Gennady Burbulis, Secretary of State of the Russian SFSR (1991–1992)

During the conference, exhibition The Baltic Way by VMU professor, photographer Romualdas Požerskis was exhibited at the lobby of VMU Great Hall (28 S. Daukanto g., Kaunas). The exhibition captured the historical period when the leading positions in Europe were occupied by some of the conference participants.

“Lithuania stands for the spirit of freedom kept alive by thousands and thousands of people – a spirit that survived Siberian frosts, betrayals by Soviet secret service collaborators, and the horrors of the gulag. Romualdas Požerskis managed to capture this ultimate aspiration in his photo exhibition and photo album “Lithuania in 1988-1993″. For many years Lithuania had been suppressed by a brutal force which crossed our border in 1940 through deception and blackmail with unconcealed intent to stay forever. Lithuania resisted the foreign army: the partisants, dissidents, the entire nation had never lost hope to regain freedom and independence”, President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė is quoted in the introduction of the exhibition.

Seminar about Russian Threats in Central and East Europe

VMU Political Science and Diplomacy Faculty in cooperation with the The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland) is pleased to announce the joint panel discussion “Countering Information Threats in Central and Eastern Europe”.

The panel discussion will be held on 8th of March, 1:15 p.m.- 2:45 p.m., V. Putvinskio str. 23 – 311.

During this event scholars from the Institute of East-Central Europe and Catholic University of Liublin will present their researches.

Main goal of seminar is to introduce a specify of hybrid war, manipulations in media and other instruments, which helped for Russia to annex and to rule a part of Ukrainian territory. Also it will be presented models of Russian propaganda in the West, main directs and instruments of information strategy of Russia abroad.

Main discussant of seminar – prof. Gintautas Mažeikis, moderator – assoc. prof. Andžej Pukšto.

Public Lecture of Finland Ambassador Ch. G. Michelsson

7th of March 16:15 public lecture “Challenges and Opportunities for the Foreign Policy of Finland in the NB-8 Region” by the Ambassador of Finland Christer Gustaf Michelsson will be held in the Faculty of Political science and Diplomacy (Gedimino str. 44-202). The lecture is open and everybody is welcomed to participate.

Finland Ambassador Christer Gustaf Michelsson has an impressive diplomatic career. Previously, he was also an Ambassador in Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaidzhan, Ukraine. He is accredited to Lithuania starting from 2016.

Public lectures by a visiting professor

22-23 February, public lectures by prof. Alpo Rusi, visiting professor at Vytautas Magnus University, will be held.

Prof. A. Rusi served in the Foreign Ministry of Finland in several assignments (Hamburg, Copenhagen, New York, Bonn), and from 1994 to 1999 as foreign policy adviser to the President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari. He also served as EU Coordinator for the Sarajevo Summit 1999 and deputy Coordinator of the Stability Pact for Western Balkans in 1999-2000. He worked as professor of International Relations, 2000-2003, at Lapland University and in Hamburg. Later on 2007-2009 he was senior adviser in the Cabinet staff of the President of the UN General Assembly.

A. Rusi was from 2009-2014 the ambassador of Finland to Switzerland, with accreditation also to Liechtenstein and the Holy See. A. Rusi is a recognized scholar in the field of international relations and history of Finland, and has published several books in Finland, and in the United States and Great Britain.

Date	Place	Topic
February 22, 14:35	Gedimino str. 44 – 303	The Baltic Sea Region Security developments under the Presidency of Donald Trump
February 23, 11:15	V. Putvinskio g. 23-310	The international system change- a deepening conflict between the US and China- A new Post Liberal World Order in Emergence

Public Lecture of Danish Ambassador Dan. E. Frederiksen

Danish ambassador Dan E. Frederiksen gave a public lecture “DENMARK IN THE WORLD: foreign policy priorities and actions” and met the Faculty’s community by on March 2, 2017.

The ambassador presented Danish foreign policy and discussed the measures of how a small country as Denmark might use while conducting foreign policy. The friendship, bilateral relations, historical ties between Lithuania and Denmark were discussed as well.

Danish Ambassador Dan E. Frederiksen has an impressive diplomatic career. Previously, he was also an Ambassador in Uganda, South Africa and other African countries. He is accredited to Lithuania from 2015.

An interdisciplinary conference in memory L. Donskis

The Interdisciplinary Intellectual Practices and Moral Imagination of Leonidas Donskis

In memory of philosopher Professor Leonidas Donskis, the Department of Philosophy and Social Critique at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) is organizing an interdisciplinary conference of humanities and social sciences devoted to his thinking and research.

The conference will be held at Vytautas Magnus University on May 11 – 12, 2017.

Themes of the conference, all of which are related and devoted to Donskis‘ own research:

Comparative civilizational analysis and Oswald Spengler
Theories of nationalism and the problem of ideology
History of ideas and the history of social and political philosophy
Moral imagination and modernity’s trajectories
Renaissance and Baroque philosophy
Intersections of literature and politics
Critics of dystopias and utopias
Transformation of socialist intelligentsia into Western public intellectuals
Cultural and political idea of Europe
Dissents of Europe and human rights
New civic dissent and human rights in Russia
Modern identity and cosmopolitanism
The problem of evil and forms of hatred in liquid modernity
The role(s) of the public intellectual in society

The conference welcomes financial, intellectual and organizational contributions.

Conference-Donskis-VMU

Lectures by the Swedish Think Tank Expert

On February 21-22 an expert from the think tank The Swedish institute of International Affairs – PhD Anke Schmidt-Felzamnn will give lectures on the Baltic Sea region cooperation, impact of NordStream 2 gas pipeline project on the states of the Baltic Sea region and operation of think tanks and communication between experts and media.

PhD Anke Schmidt-Felzamnn current research is concerned with the European Union’s performance as an international actor in bilateral relations, taking into account the interplay of EU internal and external factors. Her main focus is on the EU’s energy, trade and human rights policies towards the Russian Federation. PhD Anke Schmidt-Felzamnn defended her PhD thesis on the EU Member States’ Motivations for Dealing with Russia at the University of Glasgow. She holds also an MSc from the University of Edinburgh and an MA from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.

“The impact NordStream 2 project on the states of the Baltic Sea region”, S. Daukanto St. 28-105, at 11:15, February 21^st.

“The operation of think tanks and communication with media”, Putvinskio St. 23-311, at 16:15, February 21^st.

“The cooperation of the Baltic Sea states”, Gedimino St. 44-202, at 11:15, February 22^nd.

“The economic and energy cooperation in the Baltic Sea region”, Putvinskio St. 23-311, at 16:15, February 22^nd.

Obama’s legacy and beyond

November 23 (Wednesday) 17:45 VMU American Studies Club will host a discussion on Barack Obama’s legacy and the future of the United States. Debate will take place in Putvinskio g. 23-106.

There is an on-going debate on the Obama’s doctrine and what impact his legacy will have for the future U.S. foreign and security policy. The Club has invited one of the most prominent Lithuanian journalists and political analysts Mr. Vykintas Pugačiauskas who will share his insights on the topic. Dr. Gerda Jakštaitė and Dr. Giedrius Česnakas (Vytautas Magnus University’s lecturers and researchers) will join the discussion as well. Discussion will be moderated by Danguolė Bardauskaitė.

Everybody is welcomed to join and share their own opinions.

Public lecture about climate change

21st November 16:30 public lecture by dr. Florian Rabitz will be held in the Faculty of Political science and Diplomacy (Putvinskio g. 23-312) about the climate change.

Climate change is the defining environmental problem of our times yet political attempts at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions are not moving at the speed that is required. Recently, climate diplomacy has been reinvigorated with several important developments across multiple international forums. How effective is the novel institutional landscape likely to be? Could it succeed where the Kyoto Protocol did not? And what do the present changes tell us about the functioning of international institutions more broadly?

Florian Rabitz holds a PhD in political science from the Free University Brussels. He is working primarily on environmental-, technology and energy policy, with particular emphasis on international institutions and global governance. He has taught at the University of São Paulo and is presently a consultant for emissions trading.

A new book about Finland’s and Sweden’s Security Policy

Visiting professor at Vytautas Magnus University A. Rusi published a new book “Together or Separately – Finland’s and Sweden’s Security Policy at the Crossroads” (Yhdessä vai Erikseen- Suomen ja Ruotsin turvallisuuspolitiikka käännekohdassa)

The book “Together or Separately” deals with the security policies of two non-aligned Nordic countries, Finland and Sweden, between 2000 and 2016 and frames it with more theoretical explanations of interstate relations which have traditionally been categorized according to their ”level of analysis”. The book compares the foreign policies of these two countries during the Cold War and after but focuses on the last two decades. The three level-analysis as a theory constitutes the approach and structure of the book.

Both countries faced rapid changes in their security environment as a result of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in the Winter 2014 and growing tensions between Russia and the West. Finland and Sweden are on the side of the West but without the security guarantees of NATO. Their security has been weakening despite non-alignment the aim of which was the strengthening of stability in the region. The author of the book draws the conclusion that non-alignment has not contributed to stability in the Baltic Sea region as was long expected. In both countries the debate on NATO membership has evolved with historic dimensions and new agreements have ben signed both with the United States and Nato members on security co-operation to fill this gap of security.

The level of analysis tells the researcher where to look for the causes of state behavior by classifying competing explanations according to the units in which they are conceptualized. The most used schema, introduced in the 1950s by an American scholar Kenneth Walz, distinguishes three levels of analysis : international-level(or systemic) explanations look to a state’s position in the international system; domestic-level explanations look to the society, culture, and political institutions of individual nation-states; and individual-level explanations look to the personal or psychological characteristics of individual leaders.

The book discusses chronologically the themes in three main chapters and based on three levels of analysis: Chapter I (Emerging Co-operation 2000-2007),Chapter II ( Increasing of Instability 2008-2014), Chapter III( Sharpening of Conflict 2014-2016). The titles of the chapters describe the systemic changes having an impact on the security developments in the Baltic Sea Region and two nonaligned states in particular. The sub-titles in each chapter cover all three levels of analysis.

In the year 2000 Europe was experiencing promising times. The European union as well as NATO were about to enlarge in order to overcome the last dividing lines after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet empire. Finland and Sweden were closer to each other politically and militarily since the separation of 1809, as Prime Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt stated in his famous speech in 1992. Both countries expected Europe to be further unified towards a ”closer union” and Russia somewhat integrated with it. No threat of military conflict was anticipated until the last minutes before the Maidan explosion in the winter 2014.

The domestic sources and a specific strategic culture of Finland and Sweden play a role when explaining their commitment to the doctrine of ”non-alignment” despite the aggressive foreign policy launched by Russia first in words from 2005 and later in deeds from 2008. The strategic culture is based on history and geopolitics as well as the domestic system. Finland was part of Sweden from 1157 to 1809 and was annexed by Russia by military means based on the Tilsit Treaty between Russia and France in 1807. The book discusses the influence of history in this respect.

During the Cold War Sweden had a secret understanding with NATO and the United States that in case of the East-West military conflict, Sweden would not be neutral but allied with NATO (den dolda allianssen). Finland for her part had a Co-operation Treaty (YYA-sopimus) with the Soviet Union signed in Moscow in 1948 which limited the room of maneuvering of Finland and placed it to the military sphere of interest of the Soviet Union.

The two ”neutral” countries were geopolitically separated although economically and politically quite similar. In 1972 President Urho Kekkonen may have been active to secretly start consultations between the High Finnish military officials and the Soviet military attaché in Helsinki during next two years on the implications of the military articles of the 1948 Treaty. The book elaborates this critically based on newly received information from sources close to the Swedish military intelligence.

The book also discusses critically the official arguments in both countries for the maintenance of the status of non-alignment although the aggressiveness of Russia became evident since the war in Georgia in 2008. The author describes the leaders as sleepwalkers and is the opinion that both countries lost the window of opportunity in 2004 when the Baltic states joined NATO. The political prize for joining is much higher in 2016 although more needed than ever before.

One of the arguments for non-alignment has been a need for a policy of appeasement vis-à-vis Russia. However, this diplomatic strategy has barely worked and has been more like a failure as the Minsk Process on Ukraine has vindicated. The EU is not a strategic player but an advisory board of security to NATO. Economic sanctions are the only functioning tools available but a source of controversy in the EU and US.

The book discusses widely the future of security arrangements of Finland and Sweden and the Baltic Sea security in general. The region is now a strategic whole and in case one country is attacked by Russia no country can stay neutral. Is the region becoming a target of the Russian hybrid warfare to enlarge the geopolitical sphere of interest of Russia also by using energy co-operation and political means and traditional espionage ,propaganda and as well as sophisticated cyber-attacks? The answer is yes but the issue is, what next?

Sweden disarmed its army in terms its technical resources but also dismantled obligatory military service in 2010. based on a wrong analysis about security developments. Finland although its geopolitical location is more challenging, did not change its military structure and conscript system but rejected NATO membership. The problem is that both countries are between an aggressive Russia and NATO. For NATO Sweden is strategically crucial and the Swedish army is obliged to link it to the NATO structures to fill the gap emerged after the de facto disarmament of its military defense system. However, the non-socialist political parties have agreed to join NATO in case they win the elections in 2018.

The Russian long-term strategy is elaborated which aims at creating conflicts and challenging the liberal and European international order. Russia wants to have its seat in the big power game-table but is economically at the verge of collapse. One can compare Russia of Today with the Soviet Union after the intervention to Afghanistan in the early 1980. Is Vladimir Putin an incarnation of Alexander III of Russia?

The author elaborates policy strategies for Finland and Sweden but also for the Baltic and Nordic states within the EU and NATO but also between themselves and makes an effort to introduce co-operative solutions to avoid military conflicts with Russia. The future remains uncertain and instabilities are in the rise not only in the Baltic Sea Region but in the whole Europe. Finland and Sweden have to decide on v membership either together or separately. The issue is not anymore so much about their own security but about Europe as a whole. The conflict between Russia and the West does not disappear overnight although with respect to the history of Russia, ”anything can change abruptly”, as an expert of Russian affairs Keit Gessen has stressed.