On April 24, 2024, at 6 pm, the University Foundation, in collaboration with the Royal Military Academy and the Egmont Institute, will organize a debate (Dutch and Fraench) on the challenges for geostrategy and world order in the international election year 2024. The war that has been going on since 2022 in Ukraine presents us with very major geostrategic challenges. Elections will also be held in more than 50 countries in 2024, especially in Europe, the United States and Russia, and there will be a new leadership for NATO and for Europe. What are the main challenges our world must deal with? How do we deal with these challenges from a military point of view and from a political point of view? This very important issue is introduced from a military point of view by Lt-Col Tom Simoens , RMA, and Col (GS) Peter Philipsen, RMA, and from a politico-strategic point of view by Ambassador Ghislain D’hoop, FPS Foreign Affairs, with Prof. Dr Alexander Mattelaer, Egmont Institute, as moderator.
The debate will be followed by a reception.
Participation €25.
The panel members
Lieutenant Colonel Tom Simoens is professor of history at the Royal Military Academy. He discusses the geopolitical challenges in a historical context and in a broader perspective since 1945 and discusses whether we are really dealing with a historical turning point.
Colonel Peter Philipsen, professor at the Royal Military Academy, situates the current challenges in a broader military context.
Ambassador Ghislain D'hoop is a senior diplomat who has held various leadership positions in his 40-year career (Foreign Affairs, Royal Counselor, Ambassador in Berlin, Chairman of the UN Commission on Drugs, Vice-Chairman of the IAEA Board) and is currently acting Director General for Multilateral Affairs and Globalisation at the Belgian Foreign Ministry.
Prof. Dr Alexander Mattelaer is a Senior Research Fellow at the Egmont Institute (Royal Institute for International Relations), professor at VUB and also affiliated with the Royal Higher Institute for Defense. He worked as a visiting researcher at Harvard University and the National Defense University in Washington DC.