- European Values Center for Security Policy

EUROPEAN VALUES SUMMIT 2026: LIST OF SPEAKERS

Yohannes Assefa, J.D., Ethiopia/USA

Yohannes Assefa is an attorney and an experienced international development professional with over 25 years of experience in the United States and Africa. Mr. Assefa is currently the Managing Director of Stalwart Management Consultancy Services LLC, based in the United States, with offices in East Africa. Mr. Assefa's current work focuses on responsible FDI (governance and transparency) in Africa, including examining Chinese infrastructure investments in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mr. Assefa previously served as Chief of Party, Director, Senior Technical Adviser, and consultant on various US Government-funded governance, trade, investment, and finance projects across 18 Sub-Saharan African countries. Mr. Assefa also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and an Adjunct Professor of International Business at Addis Ababa University's Faculty of Law (Ethiopia) and The George Washington University in Washington, DC, respectively.

Aleksandra Bielakowska, Poland/Taiwan

Aleksandra Bielakowska is the Advocacy Manager with the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Asia-Pacific Bureau and currently serves as RSF Taiwan Chapter Chairperson. For the past 10 years, Aleksandra has been based in Taiwan, where she also worked as the Taiwan Correspondent for the Polish Press Agency. A graduate of the University of Warsaw and National Chengchi University in Chinese Studies and International Relations, her main expertise and interest centers on East Asia, with a focus on China’s political and social issues as well as human rights. She is leading the RSF global campaign in support of China's journalists, including Zhang Zhan and Jimmy Lai, as well as working on unveiling and tackling China's state-sponsored propaganda worldwide.

Dr. Julie Yu-Wen Chen, Taiwan

Julie Yu-Wen Chen is Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Helsinki. Trained as a political scientist, she studies China's global role: how China projects power through initiatives, institutions, and infrastructures, and how states, societies, and diasporas — particularly small and middle powers — perceive, negotiate, and sometimes resist that power. From 2023 to 2025, she was part of the EU-funded project "The EU in the Volatile Indo-Pacific Region," where she led the preparatory research and provided supervision and mentoring to junior researchers.

Dr. Sinead Hsi-Yi Chen, Taiwan

Dr. Sinead Hsi-Yi Chen is the CEO of Science Media Center Taiwan (SMC Taiwan), a member of the global Science Media Centre network that connects scientists with journalists to improve the accuracy of public information on science. She joined SMC Taiwan as a postdoctoral researcher and has led it since 2022, the year it became a fully self-funded independent association. Under her leadership, SMC Taiwan provides journalists with rapid, evidence-based expert input on contested and often politicised issues, from COVID-19 and vaccines to Japan’s release of treated Fukushima water and ractopamine pork imports. Her work focuses on risk communication and on strengthening public resilience against misinformation during controversies and emerging crises. She holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London (UCL).

Reinhard Bütikofer, Germany

Reinhard Bütikofer served as Member of the European Parliament (EP) 2009-2024, focussing on foreign, trade and industrial policies. He chaired the EP's China delegation 2019-2024. He served as European Greens' co-chair 2012-2019. Bütikofer co-founded the Interparliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and is co-convener of its Legislator-Expert Forum. He is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and the International Coordinator of the German Taiwanese Association. Before being elected to the EP Bütikofer had served in the German Green Party leadership 1998-2008, as Member of the Baden-Württemberg State Parliament 1988-1996 and as Heidelberg City Councillor 1984-1988. Bütikofer, born 1953 in Mannheim, grew up in Speyer. He studied at Heidelberg University.

Markus Garlauskas, the Unites States

Markus is the director of the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He is a former US government senior executive and was named by the Washingtonian as one of Washington DC’s 500 most influential people of 2025 and 2026. He served as the US National Intelligence Officer for North Korea from 2014 to 2020, following nearly twelve years in Korea at the headquarters of United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command and US Forces Korea with assignments as chief of intelligence estimates and chief strategist. He earned a Master’s Degree from Georgetown University’s Security Studies graduate program, where he is now an adjunct professor.

Prof. Jeremy Garlick, CZ

Professor Jeremy Garlick, PhD, works in the Department of International and Diplomatic Studies at Prague University of Economics and Business where he is the Director of the Jan Masaryk Centre for International Studies. He specialises in China’s international relations, focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Global China as part of the Horizon Europe project European Hub for Contemporary China (EuroHub4Sino). He has published three books on China’s global expansion including via the BRI, as well as peer-reviewed papers on the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, China-Czech relations, China’s strategic hedging in the Persian Gulf, China’s normative power in Central Asia, and China’s relations with India. Dr Garlick has taught and lectured for three decades at institutes of higher education in Asia and Europe including the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Ewha University in Seoul.

Dr. Sari Arho Havrén, Finland

Dr Sari Arho Havrén is a Senior Geopolitical Adviser at Business Finland and an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London. She is also a Visiting Researcher at the University of Helsinki, where she completed her PhD in general history with a specialisation in international relations. Her academic formation spans modern Chinese history, sinology, and strategic foresight; she holds a futurist certification from the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California. Dr Arho Havrén brings fifteen years of direct experience living and working in China and Hong Kong. Her research focuses on China's foreign policy, great power competition, and Sino-Russian relations, with recent work examining Beijing's role in the war in Ukraine. She has authored numerous books, articles, and policy papers, and is a frequent commentator on geopolitical affairs. Prior to her current roles, she served as an Adjunct Professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies and as a European-China Policy Fellow at MERICS, the Mercator Institute for China Studies.

Dr. Atsuko Higashino, Japan

Dr. Atsuko Higashino is Associate Professor in the faculty of International Studies at University of Tsukuba, Japan. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Birmingham, the United Kingdom, and an MA and BA in Political Science from Keio University, Japan. Dr. Higashino is currently teaching International Relations, International History, and politics and policies of the European Union. Since 2022, she has written extensively on the Russian aggression against Ukraine and EU's response to it.

Marcin Jerzewski, Poland/Taiwan

Marcin Jerzewski is the Head of the Taiwan Office of the European Values Center for Security Policy. He also serves as an analyst contributing to the Center’s research on Taiwan and the broader Indo-Pacific region. Concurrently, he is also a Fellow with Visegrad Insight and an individual member of the Expert Pool at the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE). His previous professional experience includes work at the Taiwan NextGen Foundation, the Taipei City Government, the Polish Office in Taipei, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. Jerzewski delivered expert briefings on Taiwan’s domestic politics and foreign policy to officials on four continents, including the European Parliament, the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania, and NATO. He is also a frequent commentator on the politics and international relations of Taiwan, with his analyses cited in outlets including Al Jazeera, The Economist, The New York Times, and Yomiuri Shimbun, among many others. A sinologist and political scientist, Jerzewski completed his studies at the National Chengchi University, the University of Richmond, and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Nicolas Jouan, United Kingdom

Nicolas Jouan is a Senior Analyst in the Defence and Security group at RAND Europe and the deputy director of the Centre for Defence Economics and Acquisition. His research interests focus on the geopolitics of Europe and the Arctic, transatlantic cooperation and defence acquisition policies. At RAND, Nicolas has worked on a number of projects including the formulation of a High North strategy by the UK MOD, national and international acquisition process analysis and the adoption of new technologies by the defence supply chain.

Zuzana Košková, Czechia

Zuzana Koskova is a sinologist with experience in diplomacy, management of research and science. She joined the EVC in February 2023 as the senior program coordinator of the Red Watch program, since April 2023 she has been the Head of the program. During the Czech presidency of the Council of the EU (2022) she served at the Czech MFA where she also completed the Diplomatic Academy program. Previously, she worked at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in management of science and innovation. She graduated from MA program Modern China Studies at Freiburg University (Germany), bachelor program Sinology at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague and Humanities at the Faculty of Humanities, CU in Prague. Her research interests are Chinese media, censorship and propaganda.

Dr. Olimpia Kot, Poland/Taiwan

Olimpia Kot is a Senior Project Coordinator at the European Values Center for Security Policy Taiwan Office, where she focuses on democratic resilience, disinformation, and Indo-Pacific security cooperation. Her work combines policy analysis with anthropological perspectives, particularly on identity, Indigenous peoples, and societal resilience.
She holds a PhD in Anthropology from National Tsing Hua University. Her doctoral research examined the long-term consequences of disaster-induced relocation among Indigenous Paiwan communities in Taiwan, focusing on vulnerability, agency, and relationships with land. Prior to joining EVC, she conducted ethnographic research at Academia Sinica and spent seven years at the Polish Office in Taipei, working in public and cultural diplomacy, media engagement, and international events.
Her current research interests include identity-based disinformation, Indigenous resilience, climate resilience, Women, Peace and Security, and the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, with a particular focus on translating academic research into practical policy recommendations.

Dr. Sungown Lee, Republic of Korea

Dr. Sungwon Lee is a Research Fellow and Director of the Center for Security Strategy at the Sejong Institute. He also serves as Associate Editor of Korea on Point, a global online policy forum on foreign and security affairs. Previously, he was a Research Associate at the Center for Foreign Policy and National Security at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Trained in conflict studies, his research focuses primarily on European security, with particular emphasis on comparative analysis of the transatlantic alliance in Europe and U.S.-led alliance systems in Asia. He studied at King’s College London and earned his PhD from the University of Bath.

Dr. Eunjung Lim, Republic of Korea

Eunjung Lim joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) as visiting scholar from April 2026 to February 2027 from Kongju National University (KNU), where she serves as Professor in the Division of International Studies. She previously served as Vice President for International Affairs and as Dean of the Institute of Korean Education and Culture and the Institute of International Language Education at KNU (June 2021–May 2023). Her research focuses on international cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, comparative and global governance, and energy, nuclear, and climate change policies in East Asia. She previously served as a board member of the Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC) from May 2018 to July 2024 and as a member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Just Transition of the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth. She currently serves as a member of the Policy Advisory Committee for the Ministry of Unification and as a member of the governing board of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN).

Samuel Manu, Ghana

Samuel Manu is an Economist and Head of the Survey Centre at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Ghana, specialising in public policy research and advocacy. He has over a decade of experience in macroeconomic modelling, survey design, and applied economic analysis. He has led and coordinated complex donor-funded research projects across Ghana, managing multi-stakeholder programmes supported by international development organisations including DANIDA, DFID/FCDO and IDRC. He currently serves as Technical Lead for Infrastructure Watch Ghana, an initiative of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) that monitors and evaluates the transparency of foreign-financed infrastructure projects in Ghana. His broader interests include public finance and economic governance. He is a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Cape Town and holds an MPhil in Economics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

Arild Moe, Norway

Arild Moe is a research professor at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Norway. He has a Cand. polit. degree in political science from the University of Oslo where he also studied Russian language. Most of his research has been devoted to Russia, especially the energy sector and energy politics as well as Arctic affairs. He is the author and co-author of several books and articles on these themes, most recently Climate, Hydrocarbons, Sanctions – Perspectives on the Russian Arctic (2026), which discusses the economic outlook in light of climate developments and the long-term impact of the war in Ukraine. Another research interest is Norway’s Arctic policies, especially related to Svalbard, and bilateral relations with Russia.

Dr. Hema Nadarajah, Canada

Dr. Hema Nadarajah is Senior Program Manager at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, where she leads research programs on Southeast Asia, the Arctic, and Outer Space. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia's School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Hema holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from UBC, where her research focused on governance in the Arctic, climate change, and outer space. She has consulted for Canada's Department of National Defence on Arctic sovereignty and for WWF on energy transition in Southeast Asia, and previously worked with the Government of Singapore on climate change. Hema is an advisor with the Canadian International Council and a Senior Fellow at Arctic360. She recently appeared on CBC's What on Earth podcast to discuss Canada's defence investments and climate commitments.

Filip Noubel, Czechia

Filip Noubel grew up in a Czech-French family in Tashkent and Odesa and works as a journalist and expert on China and Taiwan. He studied in Tokyo, Prague, Paris, and Beijing, and worked in China for ten years, where he trained local journalists. He also spent three years working in Taiwan; currently, through the Kazakhstan-based CAPS Unlock project, he focuses on China's role in Central Asia. He is also the Deputy Director of the inVOC project, which supports independent voices in Chinese-language media (both in China and the diaspora). He regularly appears on a Chinese-language program for the Dasheng media platform. He lives in Prague, Almaty, and Taipei.

Ria Orca, The Philippines

Ria Orca is Program Manager at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), where she leads a multi-country initiative promoting transparency and accountability in foreign-financed public infrastructure projects across Asia and Africa. She works with civil society organizations, think tanks, and private sector stakeholders to strengthen oversight, help governments negotiate fairer infrastructure deals, and safeguard public resources. Prior to joining CIPE, Ria spent 17 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), managing programs on democratic resilience, anti-corruption, public financial management, social and behavior change, and security sector governance. She oversaw more than $100 million in development programming in the Philippines and Mongolia and provided technical support to initiatives across the Pacific Islands.

Yurii Poita, Ukraine/Germany

Yurii Poita is a Senior Associate Fellow at MERICS. He specializes in China’s involvement in the Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian-Chinese relations, mutual influence and connections between the European and Indo-Pacific theaters, as well as the security situation surrounding China and Taiwan. Within MERICS, he studies how the China-Russia strategic partnership affects the security situation in Europe. Yurii is also the Head of the Asia-Pacific Section at the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS) in Kyiv. Prior to joining MERICS, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR) under the MOFA Taiwan Fellowship. Yurii studied Military Sciences at the Zhytomyr Military Institute, International Relations at Kyiv International University, and Political Science at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. He also studied the Chinese language at National Taiwan Normal University.

Tomasz Smura, Poland

Tomasz Smura is Board Member and Director of the International Security and Defence Program at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation as well as Director of the Defence Track of the Warsaw Security Forum. He defended his PhD thesis at University of Warsaw and previously studied at Institute of International Relations of UW and the University of Nottingham. His his research interests include US foreign policy, East Asia and International Security. Tomasz Smura has been awarded a scholarship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan and worked as a Director for Strategy and International Cooperation at the governmental SPV conducting strategic infrastructural projects.