Speakers 2026

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Elisabeth Braw

Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

Elisabeth Braw’s work focuses on defence against grey-zone and hybrid threats as well as the intersection of geopolitics and the globalised economy. She leads the Transatlantic Security Initiative’s “Threats to the global maritime order” project. Braw is also a columnist with Foreign Policy and Politico Europe. 

Braw is a member of the advisory boards of M&C Saatchi World Services and GALLOS Technologies. She is also an adviser to Willis Towers Watson’s research arm, a member of the United Kingdom’s National Preparedness Commission, and a member of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy’s advisory council.

Braw has published numerous books, including the award-winning Goodbye, Globalization: The Return of a Divided World (2024), The Defender’s Dilemma: Identifying and Deterring Gray-Zone Aggression (2022), and God’s Spies (2019). Her new book, “Undersea War: The Battle to Control the Cables and Pipelines That Connect Our World” (2026), will be published later this year.

Gennadiy Chizikov

President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Gennadiy Chizhikov has published 80 articles and completed internships in the UK, Ireland, and the USA. For over 25 years, he has developed the chamber movement in Ukraine. He was vice president (1994–2002) and president (2002–2013) of the Donetsk Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Since February 2013, he has been president of the UCCI.

Florence Gaub

Director of the Research Division at the NATO Defense College (Rome)

Florence, a French-German national, has held key positions such as deputy director at the EU Institute for Security Studies, foresight advisor at the EU Council, and special advisor to EU Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.

Beginning her career at NATO’s Middle East Faculty in 2009, she now focuses on strategic foresight.

Agnieszka Homańska

Head of the political cabinet of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski

Head of the political cabinet of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski. Political scientist and linguist, researcher at the University of Warsaw. Founding member of the Zryw Foundation. Before joining the ministry, she worked at Visegrad Insight, the Res Publica Foundation, where she led the “Europe on Edge” program.

Ivan Ivanisević

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for the EU matters of Montenegro

van Ivanišević holds a Law degree (2004), completed the Diplomatic Academy “Gavro Vuković” (2006), Msc in Business & Administration Management (2026). He served in Montenegrin Embassies in Ljubljana and Belgrade, in the Permanent Mission to the Council of Europe. He was DG for Multilateral Affairs (2017-2019);the Ambassador of Montenegro in Paris (2019-2025). Today, he’s the DG for EU at the MFA.

Magdalena Jakubowska

Vice President, Res Publica Foundation

Magdalena Jakubowska is the Vice President and Director of Operations at the Res Publica Foundation. In this role, she is responsible for strategic foresight and programme planning, institutional cooperation and strategic development, looking at the EU and transatlantic affairs through the lens of democratic security. One of her flagship projects concerns women’s empowerment in security (#WomenAreNATO). Previously, Magda Jakubowska worked at the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and the Polish Institute of International Affairs.

Tomasz Kasprowicz

Editor-in-Chief, Res Publica Nowa

Tomasz Kasprowicz is the Editor-in-chief of Res Publica Nowa and Vic President of the Res Publica Foundation. He has a PhD in finance and is a graduate of Southern Illinois University and National-Louis University. Kasprowicz is an academic lecturer with experience on three continents and publicist focusing on economics and new technologies, publishing both in Poland and abroad. Author of reports on, among others, the Metaverse, the Euro, and the EU’s financial perspectives. Entrepreneur running a company specializing in the digitalization and automation of business processes.

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard

Resident senior fellow with Bruegel

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard is a resident senior fellow with the Bruegel think tank in Brussels and a nonresident senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). He has a BSc from the University of Aarhus in Denmark; an MA from Columbia University in New York; and received his PhD in political economy from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies.

Ignacy Niemczycki

Secretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland

Ignacy Niemczycki is a Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland. Previously, he served as an Undersecretary of State at the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology since 2024. He worked in the government administration at, among others, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, Office of the Committee for European Integration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the European Union. He used to manage the European division at Polityka Insight.

Wojciech Przybylski

Editor-in-Chief, Visegrad Insight – Res Publica Foundation

Wojciech Przybylski is the Editor-in-Chief of Visegrad Insight and President of the Res Publica Foundation. He is a political analyst heading Visegrad Insight’s policy foresight on European affairs. His expertise includes foreign policy and political culture. Europe’s Future Fellow at IWM Vienna. Wojciech also co-authored a book Understanding Central Europe, Routledge 2017.

Ingrid Schulerud

Special adviser /Ambassador EEA and Norway Grants

Norwegian senior diplomat, based in Oslo, special adviser on democracy and rule of law, ambassador for the EEA and Norway Grants.
Former ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, deputy at the Norwegian mission to the EU, and Head of the Central and Eastern Europe office in the MFA.

Romana Vlahutin

Ambassador, Government of Croatia Special Envoy of Strategic Connectivity Nation

Ambassador Romana Vlahutin serves as Special Envoy for Strategic Connectivity of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and National Coordinator for the Three Seas Initiative.

Previously, she served as Ambassador at Large and EU Special Envoy for Connectivity at the European External Action Service (2018–2022), where she played a leading role in shaping the EU’s connectivity strategy