Join the upcoming panel discussion on May 12 at 17:00 CET (11:00 EST).
Speaking about the digital transformation of society, we must remember the mission of the Western world to spread democratic values to new countries. It is important to remember that there are not only “pure democracies” and “pure dictatorships” in the world, but also transition countries.
We are talking about states that have emerged in the last three decades, where the social structure has not yet been established. Many of these countries are located along the conditional border between China and Russia on the one side and the Western world on the other – they are post-Soviet or post-communist countries of Eurasia: from Central Asia, through the South Caucasus to Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Dictatorships try to spread their influence over these countries using new digital technologies. China does this by introducing its technologies, in particular by deploying its 5G networks, Russia – using information interventions and disrupting the clarity of the electoral process.
What should be the response of the West to this challenge? This will be discussed at the StrategEast.Live panel discussion “The Digital Innovation Agenda for Transition Countries”.
The panel discussion will be moderated by Dr. Jade McGlynn, the Director of Research at the Henry Jackson Society.
The event will be live-streamed to StrategEast Facebook page.
Main issues to be discussed:
- Is it possible to spread the values of democracy in transition countries through the development of new technologies?
- What steps the West should take immediately to protect the transition countries from the information interventions of their dictatorship neighbors?
- How to involve the civil society of transition countries in the development of new ethical standards, privacy, security, and free expression in global social networks and other global information platforms?
- How does the IT industry in transition countries contribute to the development of democracy?
Panel participants:
- Dr. Andreas Aktoudianakis, Digital Policy Lead Analyst at the European Policy Centre;
- Darius Gaidys, Ambassador-at-Large for Digital Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania;
- Anatoly Motkin, President of StrategEast center for a new economy;
- Nino Shekriladze, the Head of the UN Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Chair of the Working Group on the Democracy and Technology of the Community of Democracies.
StrategEast.Live is a series of online panel discussions launched by StrategEast in 2020 to continue the conversation on how technology can lead to an overall transformation in Eurasia. During these events, the esteemed guests put forward ideas that facilitate the further development of a knowledge-driven economy in the region.
Dr. Jade McGlynn, the Director of Research at the Henry Jackson Society.
Dr. Jade McGlynn is the Director of Research at the Henry Jackson Society, where she previously worked as a Research Fellow specializing in Russian political culture and foreign relations. Prior to joining HJS, Jade worked as a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Oxford.
Jade holds a DPhil in Russian from the University of Oxford, where she also gained her BA in Russian and Spanish. She also has a Masters by Research in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Birmingham. Jade has published in various media outlets, leading academic journals, think tank reports, and collected volumes, and she is currently finalizing a manuscript on the politics of memory in Putin’s Russia.
Outside of academia, Jade has worked in international marketing roles across Russia and Eastern Europe, managing teams across several time zones. She lived and worked in Russia for five years and has also worked and held research fellowships in Spain, Serbia, the USA, and Ukraine. As well as fluent Russian, Jade speaks Spanish, French, Serbian, and Ukrainian, with limited proficiency in German.
Dr. Andreas Aktoudianakis, Digital Policy Lead Analyst at the European Policy Centre.
Dr. Andreas Aktoudianakis is the Digital Policy Lead Analyst at the European Policy Centre, working within Europe’s Political Economy program. He covers the policy areas EU digital agenda, digital sovereignty, new technologies, and industry 4.0. Prior to joining the European Policy Centre, Andreas worked as Special Adviser to the Director at the Open Society European Policy Institute, and as Schuman Policy Analyst at the European Parliament’s DG EXPO Unit for Transatlantic Relations and G7.
Andreas’s work has been published in the Economist, the Political Studies Association, the Global Discourse, and the World Congress of Philosophy, and has been mentioned in media such as The New York Times and Le Monde, among others. Before this, Andreas worked as an academic. He taught on EU Politics, Foreign Policy Analysis, International Security, Political Theory and History of Political Thought at the University of St Andrews, and Edinburgh University in the UK. Andreas holds a Ph.D. in International Relations and an MLitt in International Political Theory from the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, and a BA in Journalism and Sociology from The American College of Greece in Athens.
Darius Gaidys, Ambassador-at-Large for Digital Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania.
Mr. Darius Gaidys is a Lithuanian diplomat. Darius joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania in 1991. During his 30-year diplomatic service, Darius was posted to New York, London, Sofia and Los Angeles. In 2019 he was appointed Ambassador-at-Large for Digital Affairs. Besides his diplomatic work, Darius taught Diplomacy and Diplomatic Protocol at Vilnius Institute of International Relations and Political Science, and Vytautas Magnus University.
Darius graduated from the School of Law of Vilnius University in 1991 and completed the Diplomat training program at Stanford University in 1992.
Anatoly Motkin, President of StrategEast center for a new economy.
Mr. Motkin is a successful technology investor with years of experience in political consulting and media entrepreneurship in the Eurasian region. He began his career as a political consultant both in Israel and Eurasia. He later moved from politics to media, helping to start one of the leading Russian language media companies in Israel. Mr. Motkin has served as an advisor and investor to both the public and private sectors, by successfully backing a number of Israeli IT projects, developed in the High Technologies Park in Belarus.
As his career has shifted over time, Mr. Motkin has consistently shown his dedication to improving business practices and government transparency in the Eurasian region. Mr. Motkin’s extensive background has led him to deepen his focus on reinforcement of the values of rule of law and private property protection in the former Soviet region through the creation of StrategEast.
Nino Shekriladze, the Head of the UN Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Chair of the Working Group on the Democracy and Technology of the Community of Democracies.
Nino joined the Foreign Service of Georgia in 2005. Her previous assignment was in New York (2013-2017), where as the Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Georgia, she covered topics of sustainable development and oversaw the Delegation’s work at the 2nd Committee (Economic and Financial) of the General Assembly as well as the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. In this capacity, she represented Georgia at the UN negotiations in the field of sustainable development, including the intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda that resulted in the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Nino Shekriladze also served as the Vice-Chairperson of the UN Commission on Populations and Development (CPD) (10/2013-04/2014), wherein co-facilitated consultations on the outcome document of the 47th Session of the CPD that was adopted by consensus.
At various times Nino was the Head of the Division of Export Promotion and Foreign Investments at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2012-2013), was posted to the Embassy of Georgia in the Republic of Poland (2009-2012) as well as covered bilateral relations with a number European states (2005-2009). She was a lecturer at the Georgian Technical University, where she delivered a special course for graduate students on the issue of European integration and has also worked in the private sector.
