EFB Alumni on GLOBSEC Young Leaders Forum 2013

5 alumni of the EFB Community were selected to be listed as delegates of the GLOBSEC Young Leaders Forum, which was part of the Bratislava Global Security Forum - The leading foreign policy and security forum in Central Europe. In the period between April 18-20, 2013 in the frames of the GLOBSEC Bratislava Global Security Forum 2013, the representatives of the European Fund for the Balkans - Ivana Vukasinovic (Serbia), Maja Maricic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Teodor Moga (Romania), Edvard Mitevski (Macedonia) and Miguel Nunes Silva (Portugal) - were among the young delegates coming from a variety of professional and academic backgrounds and include elected officials, legislative staffers, academics, and military personnel. Out of over a hundred applicants - thirty eight candidates from over twenty countries were invited to join the online working group and spend almost three days alongside political and expert elites at the GLOBSEC YLF. This year's main theme of the GLOBSEC Young Leaders Forum was “Transitions” - be it transitions from authoritarian regimes in North African countries, integration and democratisation processes in the Balkans, or the on-going fragility of new democracies. Apart from offering interesting and in-depth topical discussions, the Forum focused on professional development of emerging leaders - aimed at assisting them in their transition towards becoming decision-makers and experts in their fields. Lastly, intertwining the GLOBSEC YLF program with that of GLOBSEC gives emerging leaders a unique experience of attending a large-scale conference - an essential tool of public diplomacy. GLOBSEC Young Leaders Forum was organised by the Slovak Atlantic Commission and the main goal was to give the emerging influencers and future decision-makers the opportunity to contribute new ideas to the debate on security, foreign policy and economy, improve their policy-making skills and engage in networking with their peers and senior policy-makers. According to the EFB participants, the GLOBSEC's Young Leaders programme was full of remarkable moments. They had an opportunity to participate in series of panel discussions and sessions on number of important regional and international topics. [block_quote cite='- says Edvard Mitevski, EFB alumnus from Macedonia who was part of the EFB Fellowship Programme for Young Government Officials from Western Balkans']Globsec 2013 was a rewarding opportunity, allowing us to spend constructive time and discuss burning security issues challenging our and today's global societies with important policy-makers, high-flying diplomats and key scholars, politicians and statesmen. As young professionals we were enabled to present our standings, obtain first-hand information on the current and future security challenges and moreover understand the nature of the intra- and intergovernmental undertakings to address them on the road towards establishment of a sustainable, inclusive and indivisible security community. The opportunity to take part in the Globsec Young Leaders Forum put us in the position to network and share experiences with our peers from abroad, an important component in the process of building a joint platform for our nations' common security, political and socio-economic future in the Euro-Atlantic structures[/block_quote] H.E. Theodore Sedgwick, the ambassador of the US to Slovakia hosted the group of young leaders for a lunch in his residence, where they also met respected foreign policy and military affairs experts like Ian Brzezinski (Senior Fellow, International Security Program, Atlantic Council, Washington, D.C.), Kurt Volker (Executive Director, McCain Institute for International Leadership, Arizona State University, Washington, D. C.) and Thomas Countryman (Assistant Secretary, State Department). [block_quote cite='- says Miguel Nunes Silva, EFB Alumnus from Portugal, who was part of the EFB Leadership Development Programe. '] GLOBSEC 2013 was a marathon of extremely interesting events- all related to foreign policy and security. Lecturers came from all over the world, be it China, Finland or the US. The event itself was in fact an enormous happening with dozens of related side events from Slovak and European press interviews to backstage dialogue and advocacy. As Young Leaders Forum participants we were particularly fortunate, because of the parallel session that were organized for us. Not only did we get to speak to some keynote guests prior to their intervention in the main sessions, but we also enjoyed a relatively more open discussion atmosphere. A visit was organized to the US embassy with most of the American Globsec speakers being present and the youths also had a chance to debate Responsability to Protect on their own. In general, this was a useful event made possible by the support of the EFB[/block_quote] As a follow up, the online platform of GLOBSEC Young Leaders Forum will transform into an international working group incentivised to collaborate on common projects, writing policy briefs and other publications.