We are very pleased to share with you some of the highlights of our 2-day Forum that took place on September 10 and 11, 2023.

Over the course of the Forum, our guests took part in 9 panels devoted to various aspects of consideration of the conference themes – on day 1 mainly devoted to democracy (Securing Democracy) and on day 2 to security (Democratizing Security).

The first day of the conference was opened by Anna Szymanska-Klich, President of the Institute for Strategic Studies, and Professor Gorniak, Vice-Rector of the Jagiellonian University. Later, our guests and the audience listened to discussions by panelists such as Hans-Gert Poettering, Jerzy Baczynski, Jaroslaw Kurski, General Hodges, Dalibor Rohac, Dariusz Rosiak and Akkan Suver.

The second day of the Forum began with a speech by US Ambassador Mark Brzezinski, in which he referred to the symbolic date for his country of September 11, 2023. Day two was marked by security considerations, and our guests listened to discussions by specialists and diplomats such as Dominique David, Daniel Fried, Roland Freudenstein, Robert Pszczel and Piotr Buras.

During the course of the conference, participants had the chance to listen to two panels on current events related to the war in Ukraine. The first day featured a panel entitled “Implications of Russia’s War against Ukraine,” where we had the honor of hosting Ms. Olena Tsybukh, Vice Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Poland, Gen. Ben Hodges, former leader of US Army Europe, Gen. Jarosław Stróżyk, head of Poland’s Military Counterintelligence Service, and Camille Granda, former Assistant Secretary General for Defense Investment in NATO. On the second day of the Forum, our guests listened to the panel “Ukraine, NATO and the great power rivarly” in which Dominik Jankowski, advisor in the office of Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Rolf Nikel, former German ambassador to Poland and Eugeniusz Smolar, former director of the Center for International Relations, discussed.

Each panel involved lively discussions and questions from the audience. The Institute for Strategic Studies would like to thank everyone for their participation. We hope you can join as in the years to come to continue reflecting upon the issues of democracy and security, both crucial and most important now.