Annual conference draws consortium members from across region

Photo By Robert Talenti | Dr. Denis Alexeev (left), associate professor at the State University in Saratov, Russia, and Dr. Teodor Lucian Moga, a lecturer at the University Alexandru Ioan Cuza in Iasi, Romania, receive the Partnership for Peace Consortium’s annual Athena Award as the best article published in the preceding year in the Consortium’s journal Connections June 26 by Sean Costigan, executive editor of Connections, during the PfPC 16th annual conference held June 24 to 26 in Bucharest, Romania. Their winning article was Post-Soviet States Between Russia and the EU: Reviving Geopolitical Competition? A Dual Perspective.” (DOD Photo Robert Talenti/RELEASED)  

BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

06.30.2014

Story by Robert Talenti 

George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies

By Robert Talenti
GCMC Public Affairs

BUCHAREST, Romania – The Partnership for Peace Consortium held its 16th annual conference here June 24 to 26 to discuss the changing security landscape and the role of education and soft power in adapting and responding to such changes.

“The world, despite the relative peace of the past 25 years, is rapidly changing, the trend seems to be toward more violent means,” said Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Keith W. Dayton, director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

“Security everywhere is being challenged, and Europe and Eurasia matter now more than ever… The ‘post cold war’ era is over, something new is being born, and we are part of it,” Dayton said.

The two-day event gathered nearly 100 participants, both scholars and security practitioners, from 25 countries in the Marble Hall of the Romanian Military’s National Military Circle building, the world’s second largest government building after the Pentagon.

Included were participants from: Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Georgia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.

This year’s conference theme was The Future of Euro-Atlantic Security: Education and Power. Addressed were issues such as Building Trust through Transparency: The Power of Soft Power, Capacity Building through Defense Education in Turbulent Times, Security Implications of New Technologies and Political Accountability and Security.

“These issues assume added relevance at a time when NATO is looking at its role after Afghanistan and a newly assertive Russia on the Europe’s eastern flanks, coupled with major challenges such as immigration and illicit trafficking on its southern flank” said Dr. Raphael Perl, PfPC executive director and conference organizer. “The challenge we face is how to more effectively leverage power, and education can be a potent factor here.”

Romanian State Secretary of Defense for Policy and Planning Valeriu Nicut underscored the importance of the conference theme and the need for meaningful soft power responses through vehicles such as the PfPC. “The soft power dimension of the North Atlantic alliance of which you represent appears to now more useful and more necessary than ever. Both the consortium and Partnership for Peace have a central role.”

The PfPC’s annual Athena Award for the best article published in the preceding year in the Consortium’s journal Connections was presented to Dr. Denis Alexeev and Dr. Teodor Lucian Moga, for their article Post-Soviet States Between Russia and the EU: Reviving Geopolitical Competition? A Dual Perspective”(See: http://connections-qj.org/). Dr. Alexeev is an Associate Professor at the State University in Saratov, Russia, and Dr. Moga is a lecturer at the University Alexandru Ioan Cuza in Iasi, Romania.

Insights gained from the conference will help the Consortium’s nine working groups better focus their activities especially in the area of curriculum development and add vitality to the teaching content of Consortium’s expanding Defense Education Enhancement Program.

The Partnership for Peace Consortium is a multinational volunteer based network of institutes of higher learning in defense and security affairs linking more than 800 institutions in 59 countries. The Consortium operations staff is located at the George C Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. For more information, visit www.pfpconsortium.com

• Date Taken: 06.30.2014
• Date Posted: 06.30.2014 11:33
• Story ID: 134862
• Location: BUCHAREST, RO