US-Ukraine Security Dialogue IX: Identifying Ukraine’s Security Priorities

US-Ukraine Security Dialogue IX: Identifying Ukraine’s Security Priorities

March 8, 2018

Venue:  National Press Club – Washington DC

8:30 am – 8:55 am – Registration

8:55 am – 9:30 am – Morning Words of Welcome

Remarks:   HE Valeriy Chaly [Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States]

Brian Fitzpatrick [US Representative R-PA]

Brendan Boyle [US Representative D-PA]

9:30 am – 10:05 am – Dialogue Focus Session I

Theme: Why Ukrainian Security Matters – UA Perspective

Chair:  Andrew Futey [President/Ukrainian Congress Committee of America]

Presenter:  Maj. Gen. Volodymyr Havrilov [Defense Attache/Embassy of Ukraine to the US]

Suggested topics: 

• Impact Regionally
• Impact on the Euro-Atlantic Community
• Impact on US National Interests
• Impact Globall

10:05 am – 11:30 am – Dialogue Panel Discussion I

Theme:  Establishing Ukraine’s Strategic Security Priorities

Moderator:  Ariel Cohen [Executive Director Institute for Analysis of Global Security]

Panelists:   Andriy Levus [Chair/Sub-Committee on State Security|Rada NSDC Committee]

John Herbst [PD/EAC Director/Atlantic Council of the United States]

Phillip Karber [President/Potomac Foundation] 11:30 am – 11:35 am – Coffee Break

11:35 am – 1:00 pm – Dialogue Panel Discussion II

Theme:  Determining Ukraine’s Maritime Security Priorities

Moderator:  Lubomyr Hajda [Senior Advisor/Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute]

Panelists:  Ihor Kabanenko [President/Ukrainian Advanced Research Project Agency]

Glen Howard [President/Jamestown Foundation]

Stephen Blank [Senior Fellow/American Foreign Policy Council]

1:00 pm – 1:20 pm – Lunch Break [Press Interviews]

1:20 pm – 1:55 pm – Afternoon Highlight Remark

Speakers:  Oksana Syroyid [Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine]

Artur Gerasymov [Sub Comm. Chair on Mil-Industrial Cooperation/Rada NSDC]

Stefan Romaniw [Secretary General/Ukrainian World Congress]

1:55 pm – 2:30 pm – Dialogue Focus Session II

Theme: Why Ukrainian Security Matters – Western Perspective

Chair:  Orest Deychakiwsky [Senior Advisor/US-Ukraine Foundation]

Presenter:  James Sherr [Senior Fellow/Royal Institute of International Affairs]

Suggested topics: 

Impact Regionally

Impact on the Euro-Atlantic Community

Impact on US National Interests

Impact Globally

2:30 pm –  3:55 pm – Dialogue Panel Discussion III

Theme:  Defining Ukraine’s Cyber Security Priorities

Moderator:  William Courtney [BLF Executive Director/RAND Corporation]

Panelists:  Carly Frame [Legislative Staff/Office of Rep. Boyle]

Aleks Mehrle [President/Ukrainian Global Trade and Investor, Inc]

Bob Flores [Principal/Cognitio- Former CTO/Central Intelligence Agency]

3:55 pm – 4:00 pm – Coffee Break

4:00 pm – 5:25 pm – Dialogue Panel Discussion IV

Theme: Pinpointing Ukraine’s Needs In Defending Against Information Warfare

Moderator:   Roman Popadiuk [/Chairman/World Affairs Councils of America]

Panelists:  Serhii Vysotsky [Deputy Head/Rada Committee on Free Speech & Information]

Herman Pirchner [President/American Foreign Policy Council]

Janusz Bugajski [Senior Fellow/Centor for European Policy Analysis]

5:25 pm – 6:00 pm – Dialogue Focus Session III

Theme: Contemplating UA Armed Forces Capable of Forestalling RU Aggression

Chair: Mark Voyger [Special Advisor on RU-EA Affairs/US Army Europe Commanding General]

Presenter:  Glen Grant [DHR Project Manager/Defense Reform Office-UA MOD]

Suggested topics:

Land Component

Air Component

Sea Component

Cyberspace Component

6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Patrons’ Reception

[Venue:  AFPC/509 C Street NE]

SPEAKER BIOS

Stephen Blank is currently Senior Fellow on Russia at the American Foreign Policy Council; prior to his present position, Dr. Blank spent 24 years, 1989-2013, as a Professor of National Security Studies at the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, PA. His expertise covers the entire Russian and post-Soviet region and he has also written extensively on defense strategy, arms control, information warfare, energy issues, US foreign and defense policy, European, and Asian security.

Brendon Boyle was first elected to Congress in 2014 by the citizens of the 13th Congressional District, representing Northeast Philadelphia, part of North Philadelphia, and approximately half of Montgomery County, PA. Since entering public service, Rep. Boyle has served as a champion for working and middle class families, in particular on issues relating to social and economic justice. At the same time, as a highly active member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, he has served to mobilize attention to events in Ukraine; as his latest initiative, Rep. Boyle is looking to introduce legislation that shows the commitment of the U.S. to assisting Ukraine with their cybersecurity efforts.

Janusz Bugajski is a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington DC and host of television shows broadcast in the Balkans. Bugajski has authored 20 books on Europe, Russia, and trans-Atlantic relations and is a columnist for several media outlets. His recent books include Eurasian Disunion: Russia’s Vulnerable Flanks (with Margarita Assenova) (2016); Conflict Zones: North Caucasus and Western Balkans Compared (2014); Return of the Balkans: Challenges to European Integration and U.S. Disengagement (2013); and Georgian Lessons: Conflicting Russian and Western Interests in the Wider Europe (2010).

Valeriy Chaly presently serves as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States. He came to the post immediately after having held the position of Dep. Head of Administration of the President of Ukraine. Before his political and foreign services appointments, Amb. Chaly worked a number of years as Deputy Director General of Ukraine’s leading NGO, the Razumkov Center, gaining recognition in Ukraine as well as internationally for his efforts at the institution.

Ariel Cohen is a well-known international expert on Ukrainian, Russian, Eurasian, European and Middle Eastern foreign, security and economic affairs; global energy security; terrorism and organized crime. He is presently Director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security; concurrently, he is a Non Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States. For many years previous, Dr. Cohen served as Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Security at the Heritage Foundation, working closely with Congressmen and Congressional staff members and cabinet-level foreign decision makers.

William Courtney is presently an adjunct senior fellow at the RAND Corporation and executive director of the RAND Business Leaders Forum. He is also president of the U.S.-Kazakhstan Business Association, which represents U.S. exporters to and investors in Kazakhstan. In 2014 he retired from Computer Sciences Corporation as senior principal for federal policy strategy. From 1972 to 1999, he was a foreign service officer in the U.S. State Department. He co-chaired the U.S. delegation to the review conference that prepared for the 1999 Istanbul Summit of the OSCE in Europe and advised in the reorganization of U.S. foreign affairs agencies, mandated by the Foreign Affairs Reform Act of 1999. Earlier he served as special assistant to the President for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia and as Ambassador to Georgia and Kazakhstan.

Orest Deychakiwsky is currently Special Development Advisor to the US-Ukraine Foundation; until his very recent retirement, he was a senior staff advisor at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe whose country responsibilities included Ukraine, Belarus and Bulgaria. During his illustrious three decade long career, Mr. Deychakiwsky served as a member of U.S. delegations to numerous OSCE/CSCE meetings and as an international election observer in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Bosnia; he has authored or co-authored a sizable number of speeches, statements, resolutions, and articles on issues pertaining to Ukraine or U.S.-Ukrainian relations.

Brian K. Fitzpatrick is the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district. He was elected in 2016 and took office on January 3, 2017. Before his election to the Congress, Rep. Fitzpatrick served our country as an Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent, where his focus was on fighting political corruption and supporting global counterterrorism efforts. As an FBI agent, Brian served our country in Operation Iraqi Freedom – the largest of several active fronts in the War on Terror; he also served as the National Director for the FBI’s Campaign Finance and Election Crimes Enforcement Program. Rep. Fitzpatrick has traveled the world (including a number of trips to Ukraine) to promote freedom and democracy; he is recognized as an expert in restoring integrity to governmental institutions.

Bob Flores is a co-founder of Cognitio. Previously he was the President and CEO of Applicology Incorporated, an independent consulting firm specializing in information technology issues. Prior to this, Bob spent 31 years at the Central Intelligence Agency. While at CIA, Bob held various positions in the Directorate of Intelligence, Directorate of Support, and the National Clandestine Service. Toward the end of his career, Bob spent three years as the CIA’s Chief Technology Officer where he was responsible for ensuring that the Agency’s technology investments matched the needs of its mission.

 

Carly Frame serves as a Legislative Assistant to Representative Brendan Boyle D-PA. In her role as a key staffer for the Pennsylvania congressman, she played a critical part in designing and shepherding through the legislative process H.R. 1997, the bipartisan Ukraine Cybersecurity Cooperation Act, to encourage cooperation between the United States and our ally Ukraine on matters of cybersecurity, and assist Ukraine in defense against Russian cyber attacks.

Andrew J Futey, in September 2016, was elected to a four year term as President of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the representative organization of over 1.5 million Americans of Ukrainian descent; he concurrently serves as a Vice President of the Ukrainian World Congress. Mr. Futey brings more than 20 years of extensive government and campaign experience as President of Andrew J Futey & Associates. His firm provides public policy and government relations consulting, strategic planning, public affairs and campaign development strategies at the international, federal, state and local levels.

Artur Gerasymov was elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2014; he presently serves a Chair of the Sub-Committee on Military-Industrial and Military-Technical Co-operation Verkhovna Rada Committee on Security and Defense Affairs. In 2016, Mr. Gerasymov was chosen to be Vice-Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment at the PA’s 25th Annual Session in Tbilisi.

Glen Grant, a retired British military officer, has spent the last two decades as a senior security consultant for a number of Eastern European countries. He has been a presence in Ukraine since in the Revolution of Dignity and the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. In 2016-2017, Col. (ret.) Grant assumed the role of project manager of UK funded defense reform project guided by PwC Ukraine with support from Defence Minister Poltorak of Ukraine, meant to deal with reforming the defense estate and resolving various Soviet legacy housing problems; in January 2018, the noted defense expert authored a first rate reflection on a subject of vital importance, entitled: “How Ukraine can build an army to beat Putin”; the item has received wide praise for its clarity.

Lubomyr Hajda is currently Senior Advisor to the Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute; for over two decades, he served as Associate Director of HURI. A historian with a Ph.D. from Harvard University, he has taught at Harvard and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Among his publications: The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics & Society (with M. Beissinger), and Ukraine in the World: Studies in the International Relations & Security Structure of a Newly Independent State. Dr. Hajda’s latest project at Harvard involves studying ‘the Southern vector’ in Ukraine’s history, namely Turkish-Crimean Tatar-Ukrainian relations.

Major General Volodymyr Havrylov is the Defense Attaché of Ukraine in the United States. He started his military career in Air Defense units in 1981 upon graduation from the Institute of electronics technologies. In 1991 he joined the newly emerged Ukrainian Armed Forces and was selected to the first group of Ukrainian military attachés, and has since occupied tours in the United States, the United Kingdom and Romania. Prior to being appointed Defense Attaché in the United States in September 2015 he was the Commandant of the Military Diplomatic Academy in Kyiv. Maj. Gen. Havrylov has also participated in the peacekeeping operation in Balkans in 1998 and the Anti-Terrorist Operation against Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine in 2015.

John Herbst is former United States Ambassador to Ukraine and presently Director for Eurasia at the Atlantic Council of the United States; immediately prior to the current posting, he served as Director of the National Defense University Center for Complex Operations. Amb. Herbst has worked as a political counselor at the US embassies in Tel Aviv, Israel, Moscow, Russia, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the Director of Regional Affairs in the Near East Bureau of the US State Department, as Director of the Office of Independent States and Commonwealth Affairs and as Principal Deputy to the Ambassador-at-large for the Newly Independent States. He was appointed Ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2000 before assuming the post of US envoy to Ukraine in 2003.

Glen Howard serves as the President of The Jamestown Foundation. Mr. Howard is fluent in Russian and proficient in Azerbaijani; a regional expert on the Caucasus and Central Asia, he was formerly an analyst at the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Strategic Assessment Center. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, and Jane’s Defense Weekly. Mr. Howard has served as a consultant to the private sector and governmental agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Intelligence Council and oil companies operating in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Ihor Kabanenko is a retired admiral with the Ukrainian Navy. From 1983 to 1990, he served in the Soviet Navy in various assignments, including Commander of the Ship and Chief of Staff of the Missile Ships Division. Between 1993-2013, he joined and served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He was appointed to the positions of Chief of Operations and Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Navy, Ukraine’s Military Representative to NATO, Chief of Operations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and the First Deputy Chief of Defence. Upon retiring from active service, Admiral Kabanenko took on the role of Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense from May to August 2014 and the post of Deputy Minister of Defense for European Integration from August to October 2014. Currently, he is president of UARPA (Ukrainian Advanced Research Project Agency), which focuses on high-tech solutions/products for defense.

Phillip Karber is President of the Potomac Foundation; he was named to this position in 2012, having been a Senior Fellow since the Foundation’s inception in 1988. Dr. Karber is an internationally recognized expert in defense and national security matters; an accomplished business executive; and an academic. He has prepared studies on defense strategy for the highest levels of the U.S. government; advised major NATO governments on defense issues; headed BDM Corporation’s International Division; and taught courses in national security and military affairs at Georgetown University.

Andrew Levus is Chairman of the Subcommittee on State Security of the Committee on National Security and Defense Committee in Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. He also is co-founder of the Inter-Party Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Association and the Inter-Party Parliamentary Group “Nastup”. He is former Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine.

Aleks Mehrle is President of Ukrainian Trade & Global Investment, Inc. His primary responsibilities for at the firm include securing the participation and coordinating collaboration between public and private stakeholders in Ukraine with leading US and other partners across a variety of sectors including education, energy, technology, finance and innovation. To meet these obligations, Mr. Mehrle draws on his past experience as Licensing Counsel for a global patent licensing company where he was a lead negotiator for all active patent licensing programs and developed patent and technology monetization opportunities through partnerships with universities, technology companies, law firms and the financial industry.

Herman Pirchner, in 1982, became the founding President of the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), a non-profit public policy organization headquartered in Washington, DC. Under his leadership, AFPC has hosted the Washington visits of hundreds of foreign officials, ranging from the Prime Minister of Malta to the Prime Minister of Russia; conducted hundreds of briefings for members of Congress and their staffs; and organized dozens of fact-finding missions abroad for current and former senior American officials. AFPC’s publication program includes the sponsorship of numerous articles, monographs and books; in recent years, AFPC authors have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Washington Times, and the Wall Street Journal (including the European and Asian editions among other prominent newspapers and magazines.

Roman Popadiuk, the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, is a principal at Morgan Lewis Consulting. A retired member of the career Senior Foreign Service, Dr. Popadiuk brings more than 30 years of experience in the areas of national security, political risk analysis, communications strategy and energy policy, including serving on the National Security Councils of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Stefan Romaniw OAM serves as General Secretary of the Ukrainian World Congress, the entity formally tasked with representing the global Ukrainian Hromada. Mr. Romaniw concurrently holds the position of Executive Director of Community Languages Australia. He served successive terms as Chairperson of the Victoria Provincial Multicultural Commission. In his role as UWC General Secretary, he has performed double duty as Chair of the International Standing Committee on the 1932-33 Holodomor; his myriad and tireless efforts to highlight the great Ukrainian tragedy globally have received wide praise.

James Sherr is an Associate Fellow of Chatham House and former head, between 2008 and 2011, of its Russia and Eurasia programme. He was a member of the Social Studies Faculty of Oxford University from 1993 to 2012, a fellow of the Conflict Studies Research Centre of the UK Ministry of Defence from 1995 to 2008 and Director of Studies of the Royal United Services Institute (1983-85) He is also a Visiting Fellow of the Razumkov Centre, Kyiv, a Senior Associate Fellow of the Institute of Statecraft and in June 2016, a GMF Bosch Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy, Washington. Prof. Sherr’s latest book is Hard Diplomacy and Soft Coercion: Russia’s Influence Abroad (Chatham House, 2013). Other publications include: ‘Ukraine: A War of Narratives and Arms’ (in The Russia Challenge, Chatham House, June 2015), The Mortgaging of Ukraine’s Independence (Chatham House 2010) and Russia and the West: A Reassessment (UK Defence Academy 2008).

Oksana Syroyid was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary elections. In December 2014, she became the first woman to serve as the deputy speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament. Before coming to parliament, Ms. Syroyid worked several years as a national manager for the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine (2004-2012) and director of the Ukrainian Legal Foundation (2012-2014).

Serhii Vysotsky presently serves Deputy Head of the Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine; concurrently, he serves on the Rada’s Committee for Interparliamentary Links with the United States. Prior to his service in the Ukrainian parliament, Mr. Vysotsky was a well known and well regarded journalist, working as a specialist correspondent for the LigaBiznesForum News Agency and deputy chief editor of the Novyny – TV program.

Mark Voyger is Special Advisor on Russian & Eurasian Affairs to the US Army Europe Commanding General. Prior to joining NATO he was as a US Army civilian (GS-15) and worked as a Red Teamer for USF-I HQ in Baghdad, and as a Social Scientist in Logar and Wardak provinces, Afghanistan. Mr. Voyger’s professional experience includes work in Europe, the US and the Middle East. He has worked on democratization, NATO enlargement and European integration during the post-Communist transition to democracy and free market economy in Bulgaria. Mr. Voyger has done research work for the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Institute for Peace and the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., as well as for the US Naval War College.

Walter Zaryckyj is Executive Director of the Center for US-Ukrainian Relations. The Center provides “informational platforms” or venues for senior-level representatives of the political, economic, security, diplomatic and cultural/academic establishments of the United States and Ukraine to exchange views on a wide range of issues of mutual interest, and to showcase what has been referred to as a “burgeoning relationship of notable geopolitical import” between the two nations. Dr. Zaryckyj completed his undergraduate and graduate work at Columbia University; he taught political science at NYU for nearly three decades before moving on in recent years to do postdoctoral research work on Eastern Europe