Building Regional Security – Making Smart Defense Work in Practice

Building Regional Security – Making Smart Defense Work in Practice

On Friday, January 6th, the Atlantic Council’s International Security Program hosted H.E. Rasa Juknevičiene, Minister of National Defense of Lithuania, and Baltic Ambassadors to the United States for an off-the-record strategy session.

Damon Wilson, Atlantic Council Executive Vice President, moderated a discussion among experts and senior US government officials on “Building Regional Security – Making Smart Defense Work in Practice,” focusing on the NATO Baltic air policing mission as an example of effective multinational cooperation. The session also dealt with broader security issues, regional security cooperation of the Baltic states, and future prospects for the Nordic-Baltic defense and security initiatives.

Minister Juknevičiene was appointed Minister on National Defense of Lithuania in December 2008. Previously, she served as Head of Parliamentarian Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and was a member of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas. She has also chaired NATO Affairs Commission of Seimas, and served as a chair of Seimas Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Minister Juknevičiene last visited the Atlantic Council in April 2010, during a strategy session which helped launch the Council’s Transatlantic Initiative on Nordic-Baltic Security.

Related Experts: Damon Wilson