Elevating Democracy via Transatlantic Collaboration – Conference Day 2 Stockholm

Did you miss this conference? Here you can find the recording of the event!

In collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, the Institute for Security and Development Policy invites you to a conference program on “Elevating Democracy via Transatlantic Collaboration” in Stockholm, which you can also join online! 

The program aims to facilitate dialogue on challenges posed by foreign influence in the research ecosystem, with a focus on green transition technologies.  

Experts from the United States, Sweden, and Europe will convene in Gothenburg on March 11th and Stockholm on March 13th to explore security issues within research, emphasizing foreign influence. Presentations across two panels at each conference will offer diverse insights, enriching discussions with regional expertise. 

Over the past decade, foreign influence in strategic industries and critical infrastructure in the EU has grown exponentially. Beijing is increasingly acquiring equity or full ownership in companies providing critical services or industry-leading products, which may allow China to coerce national economic or security considerations in strategic sectors. At the same time, investigations have shown that authoritarian regimes may systematically exploit scientific collaborations to gain access to intellectual property and dual-purpose technologies with military and domestic security applications inconsistent with liberal research ideals. Even so, international cooperation is vital to innovation and stopping all intellectual and financial exchanges with authoritarian states does not appear feasible or desirable. Research naturally thrives in international settings, where people with a wide range of experiences, perspectives, and knowledge complement each other’s strengths. How do we balance transparent and constructive collaboration to advance knowledge on the one hand without endangering national interests on the other?   

How to join: 

On-site: Register by sending a request to ajarmuth@isdp.eu,the number of seats on-site is limited! 

Online via Zoom: Register here. 

Program in Stockholm on March 13: 

08:30-09:00: Coffee and registration   

09:00-09:15: Opening address, Introductory remarks by H.E. Ambassador Erik D. Ramanathan

09:15-10:15: Panel I on Research Security: Effective Risk Management & Conscious Partnerships 

Speakers: Dr. Rebecca Keiser, Dr. Andreas Göthenberg, and Dr. Erik Mo Welin 

10:25- 11:25: Panel II on Innovation Integrity: Ethical End-Uses & Security of Strategic Industries   

Speakers: Dr. Jeffrey Becker, Mr. Gunnar Hökmark, Dr. Christina Wainikka

11:30-12:00: Group discussion  

12:00-12:20: Off-record Q&A Session with in-person audience    

12:20-12:30: Conclusions and final remarks     

The online program runs from 9:00 to 12:00.

Speakers:

Ambassador Erik D. Ramanathan became Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden in January 2022. He previously served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Heluna Health. Previously, he was executive director of the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, the world’s leading research program and think tank on the evolution of the legal profession, and chair of the board of Immigration Equality, the national legal services and l advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ and HIV-positive immigrants and asylum seekers. Before dedicating his career to nonprofit and public service work, Ambassador Ramanathan served as Senior Vice President – General Counsel of ImClone Systems. Ambassador Ramanathan has a passionate interest in helping others and those who may need help to express their voice, be it through healthcare and community well-being, human rights advocacy, or inspiring veterans of the military and civilian service to begin a career in public service. He has been an LGBTQ+ community leader and change agent for more than three decades and has received numerous awards, including the Global Vision Award for service to the LGBTQ+ and HIV+ immigrant and asylum communities.

Dr. Rebecca Spyke Keiser is the first Chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy (CRSSP) at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Her duty is to ensure the security of federally funded research while maintaining open international collaboration while providing the NSF director with policy advice on all aspects of research security strategy. She also leads NSF’s efforts to develop and implement efforts to improve research security and the agency’s coordination with other federal agencies and the White House.

Until March 2020, Keiser was the head of the Office of International Science & Engineering (OISE) at NSF since 2015. The office promotes an integrated, international strategy and manages internally focused programs that are innovative, catalytic, and responsive to national interests.

Prior to this she was a special advisor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) administrator and an executive-in-residence at American University. Keiser also served as assistant to the director for international relations at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she provided policy guidance to the president’s science advisor.

Dr. Andreas Göthenberg was appointed Executive Director of STINT as of September 1, 2009. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 1996 and 2003, respectively. From 2006 until 2009 he was a Science and Technology Attaché at the Embassy of Sweden in Tokyo, Japan. Previous to that he was working as a Center Manager and Senior Researcher in China, setting up joint research and education centers for KTH Royal Institute of Technology at Zhejiang University and Fudan University. Dr Göthenberg has been a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Tokyo Institute of Technology and is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has also been with Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, Texas, U.S.A., and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE).

Dr. Erik Mo Welin is an analyst at the National Knowledge Center on China. He has a PhD in Sinology from Uppsala University, where he defended a thesis on the relationship between time and politics in contemporary Chinese science fiction literature. He has a double master’s degree in Chinese studies from Stockholm and Zhejiang universities and a double bachelor’s degree in Chinese and English literature and linguistics from Stockholm University. He has previously lived for a total of six years in China, where he worked as a translator and interned at the Swedish embassy in Beijing.

Dr. Jeffrey Becker is a Principal Research Scientist at the CAN (Center for Naval Analyses).
Dr. Becker has published on domestic Chinese labor politics, Chinese governance, and Chinese military, foreign policy, and security issues. His current research includes Chinese maritime issues and Chinese foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific.
Since 2014, Becker has supported the U.S. Navy with regard to China’s participation in the multilateral “Rim of the Pacific” exercise (RIMPAC). As part of these efforts, Becker has worked with U.S. and Chinese exercise planners.

Before joining CNA, Dr. Becker was the China director for the International Labor Rights Forum, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Penn State University and the George Washington University and has lived and studied extensively in China.
Dr. Becker’s published books and monographs include ‘From Peasants to Protesters: Social Ties, Resources, and Migrant Labor Contention in Contemporary China’ (Lexington Books, 2014), and ‘Behind the Periscope: Leadership in China’s Navy’ (CNA, 2013). His research on Chinese labor politics and Chinese anti-corruption efforts has appeared in Comparative Political Studies and the Journal of Chinese Political Science, and include ‘The Knowledge to Act: Chinese Migrant Labor Protests in Comparative Perspective’, and ‘Tackling Corruption at its Source: The National Corruption Prevention Bureau’.
Dr. Becker holds a Ph.D. in political science from the George Washington University, an M.A. in political science from Columbia University, and a B.A. in international relations and Asian studies from Colgate University.

Mr. Gunnar Hökmark is the chairman of the Swedish think tank Stockholm Free World Forum. He also writes in a number of Swedish newspapers on a regular basis and is a member of the European Leadership Network (ELN). He is active in the Swedish insurance market as chairman of the Swedish Brookers Association and the companies InsureSec and InsureEd as well as vice chair of Dina Försäkringar AB. Since August 2019 he is International Senior Adviser to Kreab Worldwide. Gunnar Hökmark was a Member of the European Parliament between 2004 and 2019. He was the leader of the Swedish delegation to the EPP and active in the Committee of Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee of Industry, Energy and Research. Among other things, he was elected Vice-Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament in January 2007, a position he held until 2014. Hökmark was elected to the Swedish Parliament in 1982. He served in the Swedish Parliament from 1982 to 2004 as a representative for the Stockholm region. In the Parliament, he was the spokesperson on privacy policy, energy policy and economic affairs, as well as President of the Standing Committee on Constitutional Affairs. From 1991 until 2000 he was Secretary General of the Moderate Party.

Dr. Christina Wainikka is an associate professor in civil law and policy expert for intellectual property law at Svenskt Näringsliv. She also has an MBA with a focus on leading innovation processes from the Stockholm School of Economics. She has published several books and is a frequently engaged lecturer. Christina Wainikka has worked with intellectual property law issues since the 1990s, among other things with a focus on service innovation. For several years, she also sat on the Patent and Registration Office’s transparency council.