Hybrid Threats in Eastern Europe: Building a Common Response

Introduction

• Jonathan D. Katz, Senior Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Discussants

• Valeriu Pasha, Community Watchdog.MD
• Viktor Ohiienko, Ukrainian Core
• Mikayel Hovhannisyan, Eurasia Partnership Foundation
• Ekaterina Metreveli, Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies
• Kristine Berzina, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Moderator

• Brittany Beaulieu, Non-Resident Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Please join the German Marshall Fund's Frontlines of Democracy Initiative for a discussion with leading NGOs, think tanks, and experts from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Speakers will present the findings and recommendations of a new joint report assessing hybrid threats in Eastern Partnership countries, which incorporates the perspectives of diverse stakeholders from governments, parliaments, and civil society in these four frontline countries. The report also includes recommendations for Eastern European countries and for the European Union, NATO and Western countries.

Kristine Berzina, a senior fellow at GMF, will join the panelists via video from Brussels to discuss the Alliance for Securing Democracy's 2019 European Policy Blueprint for Countering Authoritarian Interference in Democracies. The blueprint also contains recommendation for key stakeholders on both sides of the Atlantic.

Despite transatlantic efforts, Russia continues to escalate its hybrid interference in political, social, and economic institutions of frontline countries in order to stymie their deeper Euro-Atlantic integration. These unrelenting hybrid tactics derive from a common playbook Russia now deploys to exploit divisions and vulnerabilities in democracies throughout the transatlantic space. While Western democracies have struggled to implement defensive and deterrent policies, there is much to learn from Eastern European countries’ long-running efforts to strengthen their resiliency individually and collectively to address hybrid aggression.

This special web briefing will be available to watch online. Please follow this link to register to watch and to receive the recording following the briefing.

If you have any questions, please contact John Alexander at +1 202 683 2608 or [email protected].