UzhNU representatives discussed European security challenges at international forums

This year Ukrainian crisis and Ukrainian-Russian conflict has received a great deal of attention at international conferences, seminars and forums devoted to regional and global international security issues. Two of them took place in June: 11-12 June at the Pomeranian Academy (Slupsk, Poland) with the direct participation of the National Security Institute of this university, and 18-21 June in Bratislava, Banska Bystrica and Kosice (Slovakia), where Central European Analytical Centers organized the Global Security Forum (GlobalSec) for the tenth consecutive year.

The Vice-Rector of UzhNU for Academic Policy and Research, Doctor of Political Sciences Myroslava Lendel participated in both forums as a guest speaker. "I have been collaborating with the National Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Ukraine, "think tanks" of Ukraine, periodicals publishing serious materials, including "Dzerkalo tyzhnia” as an analyst for several years. It is interesting and honorauble to deliver reports and participate in discussions of organizations specializing in national and international security".

In particular, the speech of the Vice-Rector of UzhNU at the conference "Central and Eastern European states security in the context of the conflict in Ukraine" concerned security challenges for Central European borderland. A meeting with the leadership of the National Security Institute of the Pomeranian Academy, the Rector of the institution Professor Roman Drozd took place during the conference, where the issues of scientific and academic cooperation in the area were discussed.

GlobalSec was held in a less academic format. Program reports, panel discussions, discussions during lunch, "debates under the lamp", the topics of Ukraine, Russia, Islamic state, information wars, Greece, the future of the EU and Central Europe united the presidents of European states, prime ministers, parliamentarians, representatives of financial corporations, analytical centers and editors of influential media last week. A meeting of Visegrad Group (V4) representatives took place during the forum.

 Myroslava Lendel was invited to participate in the panel discussion "Ukraine and us: less talk, more action" along with the Ex-Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule, senior researcher on security and defense of the Central European Institute for Political Studies Marian Mayer. Martin Ehl, the international news column chief editor of the popular Czech newspaper «Hospodářské noviny» was the moderator of the discussion.

"The discussion took place in the building of Kosice Kulturpark and lasted for about two hours. Each of the discussants presented their "recipe" of European and Central European aid, and then had the opportunity to answer each other’s questions and communicate with the audience. My impression was that Mr. Füle, Czech and Slovak analysts clearly understood the seriousness of the situation in Ukraine for the whole European security architecture, certain weakness of Europe and double game played by some European leaders. However, everybody agreed that Russia had every chance to win the information war in Central European countries if information distributed by some media would not be opposed by objective information"- says UzhNU Vice-Rector. "It was easy to notice that Slovak scientists, public and political figures, journalists had not much communicated with Ukrainian scientists, analysts and journalists before. It’s a shame because I managed to convince many of them and change their position. I also talked to the lecturers of the Department of Political Science of the University of Kosice, with whom we jointly submitted Erasmus+ teachers’ academic mobility project".

The next GlobSec will take place next year, so there is reason to believe that more representatives of Uzhhorod National University will be involved in this global discussion platform.

 

 

• International Activities