Speakers

Mr. Andrius Kubilius

European Commissioner for Defence and Space

Mr. Andrius Kubilius

European Commissioner for Defence and Space

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen

Member of the House of Lords of the UK Parliament, and former NATO Secretary General (1999-2003)

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen

Member of the House of Lords of the UK Parliament, and former NATO Secretary General (1999-2003)

Prof. Sven Biscop

Professor at Ghent University, and Director of the Europe in the World Programme at the Egmont – Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels

Prof. Sven Biscop

Professor at Ghent University, and Director of the Europe in the World Programme at the Egmont – Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels

Prof. Dr. Sven Biscop (born in Willebroek, Belgium in 1976) read political sciences and obtained his PhD at Ghent University, where today he is a professor, lecturing on grand strategy and great powers, and on Belgian foreign and defence policy. In addition, he is the Director of the Europe in the World Programme at the Egmont – Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels, the think-tank associated with the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 1 October 2025, he also is the acting Director-General of the Institute.

Sven is a Member of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences of Belgium, and an Honorary Fellow of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC). He is a regular speaker at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels and at the People’s University of China in Beijing, where he is a Senior Research Fellow. His two latest books are Grand Strategy in 10 Words - A Guide to Great Power Politics in the 21st Century (Bristol University Press, 2021) and This Is Not a New World Order - Europe Rediscovers Geopolitics, From Ukraine to Taiwan (Owl Press, 2024).

Sven has been honoured with the cross of Commander of the Order of the Crown of the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Decoration of Honour of the Republic of Austria. Sven lives in Brussels with his Taiwanese-Belgian husband Aberu, amidst a great many books, military paraphernalia, and chinoiseries. Unfortunately they travel too often to keep a cat.

Prof. Mr. Peter Slezkine

Senior Fellow and Director of the Russia Program at the Stimson Center

Prof. Mr. Peter Slezkine

Senior Fellow and Director of the Russia Program at the Stimson Center

Peter Slezkine is Senior Fellow and Director of the Russia Program at the Stimson Center and host of The Trialogue Podcast, a series of one-on-one conversations featuring guests from the United States, Russia, and China. He has expertise on US foreign policy, the former Soviet Union, and Sino-Russian relations.

Prior to joining the Stimson Center, Slezkine was Director of the Monterey Trialogue (USA-Russia-China) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. He received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and has held fellowships at East China Normal University, the Wilson Center, the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, and International Security Studies at Yale University.

His writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The American Conservative, Compact, The National Interest, and The New Republic, among others. He is currently completing a book on the ideological origins and political impact of the American concept of the “free world.”

Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Wooddisse KCB CBE MC

Commander of Allied Rapid Reaction Corps

Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Wooddisse KCB CBE MC

Commander of Allied Rapid Reaction Corps

Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Wooddisse was commissioned into the Royal Anglian Regiment in 1992 after completing a degree at University College London. The early part of his career was dominated by operational tours to Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. His first staff job was as the Military Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps which included a nine month tour to Kabul with HQ ISAF. He commanded the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment between 2009-2011, first in Germany and then in Cyprus.

He attended the Higher Command and Staff Course in 2012 before serving in the Ministry of Defence where he developed Military Strategic Plans for operations in Syria and Somalia. He commanded 38 (Irish) Brigade, responsible for all aspects of the Army in Northern Ireland, before running Joint military operations across the globe from the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood. He commanded the 1st (United Kingdom) Division from York, the UK’s light forces Division responsible for land operations outside Europe.

He moved to the Army Headquarters in 2018 as the Assistant Chief of the General Staff where, inter alia, he led the Army’s response to COVID 19 and the Army’s input to the 2021 Defence Review. In 2021 he was appointed Commander Field Army, a post that was dominated by the Army’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He was selected to command the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps in 2024.

He is married to Louise and has three daughters aged 21, 20 and 17.

Mr. Ed Arnold

Senior Research Fellow for European Security within the International Security department at RUSI

Mr. Ed Arnold

Senior Research Fellow for European Security within the International Security department at RUSI

Mr. Ed Arnold is a Senior Research Fellow for European Security within the International Security department at RUSI.

His experience covers defence, intelligence, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, within the public and private sector. His primary research focus is on the transformation of European security following Russia’s war on Ukraine. Specifically, he covers the evolving Euro-Atlantic security architecture, the security of northern Europe, and the UK contribution to European security through NATO, the Joint Expeditionary Force, and other fora. Ed has a particular interest in UK National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Reviews.

Ed joined RUSI from the private sector where he was a strategy Director within the defence and security sector. His clients included multiple government departments and multi-national and SME private companies. Prior to consultancy, Ed was an infantry Officer within the British Army. His military career was primarily spent overseas, including deployments to Afghanistan and East Africa and a posting at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe during the 2014 Ukraine crisis.

Ed holds a MA War Studies from King’s College London and a BA (Hons) in International Politics from the University of Stirling, Scotland.

Ambassador (ret) Arkady Mil-Man

Senior Researcher and the Head of the Russia Program at the Institute for National Security Studies

Ambassador (ret) Arkady Mil-Man

Senior Researcher and the Head of the Russia Program at the Institute for National Security Studies

Arkady Mil-Man is a senior researcher and the Head of the Russia Program at the Institute for National Security Studies. He was the Israeli Ambassador to Russia (2003-2006) and Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan (1997-2000).

He began his career at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a Senior researcher of the Soviet Union at the Center for Political Research. He later headed the department in the Center responsible for the research of Russia and the Far East. Mil-Man also served as Deputy Head of the Group of Israeli diplomats in Moscow (1989-1990) before the renewal of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. He founded the Israeli Embassy in Kazakhstan (1992) and became the first Israeli Charge d'Affairs in that country. Later he worked as a Counsellor and Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in the Israeli Embassy to Russia and held different positions in the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for post-Soviet countries.

After his diplomatic career, Mil-Man worked, among other positions, in the Israeli high-tech sector, managing a venture capital fund with his partners that invested in Israeli start-ups. Mil-Man studied at Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem (political science, international relations, and history).

Prof. Taras Kuzio

Professor in the Department of Political Science, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy

Prof. Taras Kuzio

Professor in the Department of Political Science, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy

Professional Experience: Professor in the Department of Political Science, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy. Previous positions were at the International Institute of Strategic Studies; NATO Information and Documentation Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine; George Washington University; German Marshall Fund of the US, Johns Hopkins University; University of Toronto; and Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.

Published Books and Think Monographs: Author and editor of 25 books, including Russia’s War on Ukraine. The Four Roots of Russia’s Invasion (Cambridge University Press, 2026); Russia and Modern Fascism. New Perspectives on the Kremlin’s War Against Ukraine (Ibidem and Columbia University Press, 2025); Crimea: Where Russia’s War Started and Where Ukraine Will Win (Jamestown Foundation, 2024); and Russian Disinformation and Western Scholarship (Ibidem and Columbia University Press, 2023).

Mr. Kaimo Kuusk

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence of Republic of Estonia

Mr. Kaimo Kuusk

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence of Republic of Estonia

Kaimo Kuusk assumed the position of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of Estonia in September 2024.

Before being appointed as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, Kaimo Kuusk served as Estonia's ambassador to Lithuania. Prior to that he was the Estonian ambassador to Ukraine, where he coordinated the delivery of Estonia's military aid following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

From 1998 to 2019, Kuusk held various positions in the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service, with the last nine years as Deputy Director General. In 2019, he began working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Bureau.

Kaimo Kuusk graduated from the University of Tartu with a degree in political science and furthered his education in the Civil Servants’ Course at the Baltic Defence College and the University of Oslo.

Dr. Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova

Deputy Director Latvian Institute of International Affairs

DSC01453 Una Aleksandra Berzina-Cerenkova

Dr. Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova

Deputy Director Latvian Institute of International Affairs

Dr. Ieva Birka

Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences University of Latvia

Dr. Ieva Birka

Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences University of Latvia

Dr. Ieva Birka is Principal Investigator of two projects at the University of Latvia: Baltic Individual Crisis Preparedness Barometer and Empowering Baltic Resilience: From Awareness to Action via Technology. She specializes in crisis preparedness, emerging risks, societal resilience, and disaster response and her PhD research focused on Russian speaker sense of belonging and integration. Recognized by DG ECHO for advancing the EU’s Preparedness Union Strategy, she contributes to cross-border research of European relevance.

Dr. Gustav Gressel

Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the National Defence Academy of the Austrian Armed Forces

Dr. Gustav Gressel

Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the National Defence Academy of the Austrian Armed Forces

Dr. Gustav Gressel is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the National Defence Academy of the Austrian Armed Forces. From 2014 to 2024, he served as a Senior Policy Fellow in the Wider Europe Programme at the ECFR Berlin Office, focusing primarily on the Russian-Ukrainian war. In 2024, he was a visiting fellow at the European Resilience Initiative Centre (ERIC).

Before joining the ECFR, he worked as a desk officer for international security policy and strategy at the Bureau for Security Policy in the Austrian Ministry of Defence (2006–2014) and as a research fellow for the Commissioner for Strategic Studies in the Austrian MoD (2003–2006). He was also a research fellow at the International Institute for Liberal Politics in Vienna. Prior to his academic career, he served as radar officer (air defence) in the Austrian Armed Forces.

Gustav earned a PhD in Strategic Studies at the Faculty of Military Sciences at the National University of Public Service, Budapest and a Master Degree in political science at Salzburg University. He is author of numerous publications regarding security policy and strategic affairs and a frequent commentator of international affairs. His opinions appeared in media such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Die Welt, NZZ, Bild, The Diplomat, New Eastern Europe, Foreign Policy, Gazeta Prawna, Rzeczpospolita, Kyiv Post, The Moscow Times, Capital, The Telegraph, The Economist, Newsweek, Deutsche Welle, RTL, Al Jazeera, TVP, TRT, Polskie Radio, RFI, FM4, Ukraine Today, and Radio Free Europe.

Languages: German and English (fluent), Spanish and Polish (conversational) Areas of Expertise: Eastern Europe, Russia, armed conflict and military affairs, defence policy, missile defence, missile proliferation