Conference highlights

The global crisis has shaped the international agenda, with policy responses and anti-crisis measures largely dominating debates in international fora. On December 17, within the framework of its annual Kyiv Security Forum, Open Ukraine Foundation brought together prominent experts, diplomats, government officials, representatives of international and regional organizations, business and media to examine the impact of this crisis on global and regional security.

The crisis has underlined the security challenges faced by international and regional organizations and magnified the political risks threatening many countries in wider Europe, especially those with transit economies. The global architecture has been shaken and its relevance brought into doubt.

All these challenges were debated during the International Conference titled “World in Crisis: Security Challenges and Implications for Wider Europe,” which took place in Kyiv.

A summary report and a digest of all presentations made at the Conference will be released in January 2010. In the meantime, Open Ukraine Foundation has decided to make available for download English and Ukrainian versions of analytical background papers prepared for the Conference by researchers from four institutions: the International Centre for Policy Studies (Ukraine), the International Centre for Black Sea Studies (Greece), the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (Ukraine), and the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (the Netherlands).
Please find below some of the key points made by participants in order to get a flavour of Conference debates.

If we fail in Afghanistan, it will create a global security threat for all societies, including Ukraine. Today, the security of Europe is being dealt with somewhere in Kabul and Kandahar.

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In NATO’s new strategic concept, partnership will be given a lot of attention. All partners can participate in solving security problems, without automatically becoming members. Today, we have a lot of international organisations and NATO, not willing to become global, wants to have a comprehensive approach to find its own niche.

Michel Duray
Head of the outreach countries section, Public Diplomacy Division, NATO HQ

How does [the EU] see the region? [The EU] would like to see a ring of well-governed countries. For security, for stability and for the future, the ring of well-governed countries is the most important.

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Easy international funding is like a morphine shot: it relieves the pain without eliminating the need for major surgery.

Pirkka Tapiola
Senior Advisor, Public Policy Unit, Council of the European Union, General Secretariat

З одного боку є НАТО, з іншого боку – ОДКБ. Нажаль, на сьогодні Україна залишається у вакуумі безпеки.

Костянтин Єлісєєв
Заступник міністра закордонних справ України

Все ж таки поставлю питання гостро: Київ зникає з політичної карти. Брюссель починає розмовляти з Вашингтоном про Київ; чи то Москва з Брюсселем - про Київ. […] Сильніші легше знаходять спільну мову. Наше завдання сьогодні – поборотися за рівноцінне партнерство.

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Наші партнери на Сході і на Заході дуже активно просувають з нами політичний і економічний діалог. Настільки активно, що обходять нас Північним і Південним потоками. Таким чином в Україні вирішиться питання металобрухту.

Арсеній Яценюк
Народний депутат України, Лідер партії «Фронт змін», Засновник Фонду Open Ukraine

Around the turn of the 21st century, most politicians and political scientists assumed that the world was about to enter a golden era of world peace, prosperity and great power harmony. Ten years later, the same people are foreseeing a very different future in which a mix of terrorist threats, shifting power balances, states’ collapse, weapons proliferation, and, currently, deep economic crisis are creating a very different environment for international politics.

Traian Chebeleu
Deputy Secretary General, Permanent International Secretariat, BSEC

During the crisis, we are talking more about interests and less about values. The values of liberal democracies have been increasingly challenged, to the extent that some argue that it was liberal democracy that had led to the crisis.

Oleksandr Pavlyuk
Head of External Cooperation, OSCE Secretariat

We have lived through an enormous storm. As in a natural storm, you look for shelter. In Europe, we have designed a huge rescue package to shelter ourselves from this storm. But in storms, most causalities are not immediately visible; rather they emerge over time.

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The decline of the West and “the rise of the rest” is one of the key trends in global security. Such trends existed prior to the crisis, but the current recession may exacerbate them.

Stephan De Spiegeleire
Senior Scientist, The Hague Institute for Strategic Studies, the Netherlands

The Black Sea region is key to European security. Despite the existence of several international organisations and agreements, the region lacks the structure necessary to build cohesion and cooperation. There is no strong organization to set the agenda and no leader to unite the countries around certain projects. It is not Turkey yet, it is not Russia because it is not trusted, and it is not, regrettably, Ukraine.

Andrzej Kakroszka
Managing Director, CEE ADS, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Poland

Світ став багатополярним. Але полярна формула є конфронтаційною, тому треба говорити про multipartner world, тобто про багатопартнерський світ.

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Фактично поки не буде знайдено відповідь на питання української безпеки, холодна війна не завершиться.

Олександр Чалий
Заступник міністра закордонних справ (1998-2001)

The free trade system has shown itself rather robust; it has withstood basic protectionist threats. On the other hand, the financial system is fragile, vulnerable and immature. Here lies the risk of future crises.

Mats Hellstrom
Minister of Trade of Sweden (1983-1986, 1994-1996), Governor of the Province of Stockholm

When did the crisis erupt in Russia? No, it was not in late 2008. The crisis had erupted in Russia in the 80-90-ies of the last century, and culminated in late 2008. Then, Russia entered a recovery phase. The return of economic indicators to 2008 levels means a return to the recovery phase, and not a recovery from the crisis.

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It is too early to replace the dollar as a world currency and also to hurry in diminishing the role of the US in the global financial and economic architecture. The US were the first to suffer from the crisis but it felt its repercussions less than others. This highlights the strength of the American economy.

Дмитрий Сорокин
Первый заместитель директора Института экономики РАН, член-корреспондент РАН, Россия

The wealth Azerbaijan will be accumulating in the next couple of decades gives us a stronger negotiating position - just like military presence of Armenia on our territories made Yerevan feel more comfortable in 1990s. Times have changed, and now wealth and human well-being are again more valuable assets than tanks on foreign land. The growing economic imbalances between Azerbaijan and Armenia can either bring us closer to a peace deal, or lead to a renewal of war. The latter is not our choice.

Ilgar Mammadov
Co-founder, Republicanist Alternative civic union, Azerbaijan