On September 24, 2013, the National Military Circle from Bucharest hosted the first international meeting of think tanks from NATO, EU and Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States (SCO) with the theme “New Security Challenges: perspectives from the West and from the East”. The event was organized by the EURISC Foundation (European Institute for Risk, Security and Communication Management) in partnership with the German Marshall Fund’s Bucharest office and gathered senior officials, professors, researchers, experts on security issues from Romania, USA, Russian Federation, China, United Kingdom, Germany, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Iran and Afghanistan.
Among the well-known participants were Liviu Mureşan, Executive President of the EURISC Foundation, Gen. Jean Guinard, Secretary General of EURODEFENSE, Prof. Adrian Gheorghe, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, Amb. Viorel Isticioaia-Budura, Managing Director of Asia-Pacific Department, European External Action Service, Alina Inayeh, Director of German Marshal Fund Bucharest Office, Andrei Ţărnea, General Director of Aspen Institute Romania, Iulian Fota, Presidential Adviser for National Security to the Romanian President, Prof. Sun Ru, Deputy Director of China Institutes for Contemporary International Relations, Beijing, Artyom Lukin, Deputy Director of School of Regional and International Studies, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Li Yihai, International Director, Shanghai Academy for Social Sciences, Dan Dungaciu, President of the Black Sea Foundation, Bucharest, Heydar Mirza, Leading Research Fellow, Center for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku, Steven Blockmans, Head of Unit Centre for European Political Studies, Brussels, Thomas König, China Programme Coordinator, European Council for Foreign Relations, London, Prof. Quadir Amiryar, Former Senior Adviser to the Minister for Education, Kabul, Anton Tsvetov, Research Fellow, Russian International Affairs Council, Moscow, Mostafa Dolatyar, General Director, Institute for Political and International Relations from Tehran, Vice Admiral (ret.) Emil Lutskyanov, Senior Expert-Coordinator, Centre for National Security and Defense Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and many others.
The discussions focused on topics as changing paradigm of the security environment: new tendencies in security and resilience, the security of “the region” shifting to the security of the citizen, how to build security and stability in a sustainable and resilient way, the critical infrastructure protection, fighting terrorism and transnational organized crime, the security of access to resources such as energy and water, and the security environment in Afghanistan and its wider region after 2014.
The event was designed as a welcome start of a continuing process consisting of informal, flexible meetings suited for achieving the most pertinent responses and perspectives from the participants, with the aim to better use the think tanks’ significant endowments in the new security environment, especially their analysis and security policy formulation capacities and to develop further dialogue between think tanks’ experts and officials on a large variety of issues with significant potential for cooperation in the security field. In this regard, the NATO/EU-SCO think tank meeting framework is intended to be continued and extended in the future.
The International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea was represented at the event by Luiza Nita, analyst on international relations and conflict management.