8th Helsinki Summer Session: US and the Evolving International Order: Overlapping security interests: what does Nordic-US security cooperation look like and how might it evolve?

kutsutilaisuus · Webinar · 02.09.2021 16:30 - 17:45

kutsutilaisuus

2nd of September 2021, at 16.30-17.45 (EEST)

The United States and the international order it has traditionally propped up have faced tumultuous times in recent years. The Covid-19 pandemic is still causing disruptions around the world and the climate crisis is driving ever more destructive extreme weather events. The US, until recently the order’s putative leader, continues to grapple with the aftershocks of the Trump presidency both internally and in its foreign policy. Meanwhile, great-power competition is heating up in various theatres from Europe to the Indo-Pacific, not to mention in different domains, whether cyber, maritime or aerial. Against this backdrop, the 8th Helsinki Summer Session explores the future of international order at a time when the United States is debating and reassessing the parameters of its global engagement. This year’s panels bring together experts from the United States, Europe and the Asia-Pacific to cover a wide range of themes, including transatlantic trade and security relations, the developing order in the Indo-Pacific, climate politics, as well as the role of the US in Nordic security.

Panel description: 

The United States and the five Nordic countries have significantly deepened security related cooperation during the past decade. This has occurred despite different historical relationships and formal affiliations. A driver for the increased cooperation has been the more conflictual security environment and an increase in overlapping security interests. Cooperation has covered military, economic, technological, diplomatic, and broader security and defense policy spheres, and it has been conducted in a wide range of formats from bi- to multilateral ones. What does the United States expect from its efforts in the Nordic-Arctic region and how do the Nordic countries see both their bilateral relationship with the United States and the broader role the US plays in the region? How might cooperation change in the future?

The recording of the webinar is available at FIIA’s youtube-channel:

 

Puhujat

Keynote

Curtis Scaparrotti

former SACEUR General

Curtis Scaparrotti is a retired United States Army four-star general who last served as the Commander of United States European Command. He concurrently served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Scaparrotti previously served as the Director of the Joint Staff. Prior to his tour with the Joint Staff, Scaparrotti served as Commander, International Security Assistance Force Joint Command and Deputy Commander, U.S. Forces – Afghanistan, the Commanding General of I Corps and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and the Commanding General of the 82nd Airborne Division. In addition, Scaparrotti served in key leadership positions at the tactical, operational, and strategic level of the United States military, including as Director of Operations, United States Central Command and as the 69th Commandant of Cadets at the United States Military Academy. He commanded forces during Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Support Hope (Zaire/Rwanda), Joint Endeavour (Bosnia-Herzegovina), and Assured Response (Liberia). Scaparrotti is currently a Senior Counselor at The Cohen Group.

Speaker:

Pia Hansson

Director, the Institute of International Affairs, Iceland

Pia Hansson is the Director of the Institute of International Affairs and its three centres, the Centre for Small States Studies, the Centre for Arctic Studies and Höfði Reykjavík Peace Centre. She is in charge of daily operations, policy and supervision of staff, including the coordination of a number of research projects in the field of international relations and foreign policy, the organization of conferences and seminars, and the publication of conference volumes and book series. In the winter of 2007-8 Pia served as the Head Spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), a Nordic ceasefire monitoring mission in Sri Lanka, on behalf of the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Janne Haaland Matlary

Professor, University of Oslo

Haaland Matlary is professor of international politics, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, and at the Norwegian National Defence University College (Forsvarets Høgskole). She was State Secretary (deputy foreign minister) for Foreign Affairs of Norway, from 1997-2000. She is on the board of trustees of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights. She is a member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family in the Vatican and has acted as head of Holy See delegations to international conferences. She is a member of IESE’s (Business school, Barcelona) international advisory board, member of the board of trustees of the “Social Trends Institute”, N.Y., member of the board of The Swedish Defence College’s research group on strategy and of the military advisory board of the defence company SIMRAD Optronics. She is a member of Oslo Militære Samfund (The Oslo Military Society) and Agder Vitenskapsakademi (Agder Academy of Science). In 2009, Pope Benedict XIV appointed her a life-long member of the Pontifical Academy of Science (Social Science Branch).

Pete Piirainen

Visiting Senior Fellow, FIIA

Pete Piirainen is a Visiting Senior Fellow at FIIA. He has worked in several positions in the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He has also served as a defence counsellor in Finland’s Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels as well as in Washington D.C. He has specialised in defence policy, Finnish defence relations, the Baltic Sea defence architecture and transatlantic defence questions.

Robert Dalsjö

Research Director, FOI

Robert Dalsjö, Ph.D., is a Research Director in FOI’s Department for Strategy and Policy. He is a generalist in politico-military affairs, currently focusing on hard security in the Baltic Sea Region, and in Europe, A2/AD, and defence policy. He has previously worked on threshold defence, Swedish and Nordic security policy, arms control, naval issues, international operations, and Sweden's role during the Cold War. Robert has also served at the Ministry of Defence and the Swedish NATO delegation. He is an active reserve officer in the Armed Forces.

puheenjohtaja

Charly Salonius-Pasternak

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