The Ukraine Crisis and Regional Stability
ISDP FORUM with
Mr. Urban Ahlin
Foreign Policy Spokesperson for the Swedish Social Democratic Party
Major General Karlis Neretnieks
Board member of the Institute for Security and Development Policy
Dr. Carolina Vendil Pallin
Deputy Research Director for Security Policy and Strategic Studies, Swedish Defence Research Agency
Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 10.00-11.30
The Ukraine Crisis and Regional Stability
The future of Ukraine is still uncertain and tensions are running high in the region. On March 16, the referendum on the status of Crimea was held, resulting in an overwhelming majority vote for secession from Ukraine and for integration of the region into the Russian Federation. On the following Monday, Crimea’s Parliament declared independence from Ukraine. The referendum was overshadowed by the deployment of Russian troops to Crimea, where Russia maintains a large naval base, during the previous weeks, ensuing widespread condemnation by the international community and denunciation of the vote as illegitimate. Meanwhile the results of the referendum were widely celebrated in Russia, while the country proceeded to tighten its grip of the peninsula. As a response to what is widely perceived as an infringement on Ukraine’s sovereignty, USA and EU have implemented, and then tightened, sanctions against the Russian Federation. These sanctions were met with a similar response from Moscow. Mr. Urban Ahlin, Major General Karlis Neretnieks and Dr. Carolina Vendil Pallin will each give a short presentation on the current situation based on their perspective and expertise, before the floor is opened for questions from the audience. The Panel will be moderated by Dr. Niklas Swanström, Director of ISDP. This Panel Discussion aims to give an update of the current situation and outline options to regain stability in the region after the Crimean referendum.
Mr. Urban Ahlin is the Swedish Social Democratic Party’s spokesperson on foreign policy issues and has been member of the Swedish parliament since 1994. He is a founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, ECFR, as well as a member of the International Advisory Board of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferations Studies, CSN, at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Major General Karlis Neretnieks was a Senior Fellow at ISDP between 2006-2010. Previously, he has held the position of President of the Swedish National Defence College, been a member of the board at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOA) and a member of the Advisory Board at the Geneva Institute for the Democratization of Armed Forces (DCAF), amongst other appointments. He is a fellow, and board member, of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences.
Dr. Carolina Vendil Pallin is Deputy Head of Research of Security Policy and Strategic Studies at the Swedish Defence Research Agency. Dr. Pallin holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and has previously worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute for International Affairs. She has also worked as an Expert Advisor for the Secretariat of the Swedish Defence Commission in 2012–2013. Vendil Pallin is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences.
To attend, RSVP by Monday, March 31 to Ms. Anna Nielsen at anielsen@isdp.eu
Location: ISDP, Västra Finnbodavägen 2, Stockholm-Nacka. For a map and directions, please go here.