The Masterclasses were opened by Toms Baumanis, Member of the board of LATO and Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Deputy Speaker and MP of Latvia, before a first exercise was started under the lead of YATA (Youth Atlantic Treaty Association) Latvia.
The second day started with a discussion about “Strengthening Military Security in the Baltic States: Ensuring Regional Stability and Defence Readiness” with Māris Cepurītis, Chairman of the Board and Director of Centre for East European Policy Studies and Oliver Morwinsky, Head of KAS Baltic states, moderated by Viesturs Romka, Project Manager of LATO.
Dmitri Teperik, Senior Policy Expert on Societal Resilience, Disinformation, Crisis Communication and Civil Security, Kaspars Druvaskalns, Head of the Crisis Management Division, State Fire and Rescue Service of the Republic of Latvia, and Prof. Dalia Bankauskaite, Associate Professor at the Vilnius University, Lithuania, and Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) discussed “The Role of Civil Society in Crisis Management: Empowering Communities for Resilient Responses”, moderated by Sigita Struberga, Secretary-General of LATO.
Next followed three lectures by Iveta Kažoka, Director and Senior Researcher at Domnīca Providus / Centre for Public Policy Providus about the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Modern Political Campaigns, Vitālijs Rakstiņš, Director of the National Defence Service Department about Resilience and Resistance and Role of Individual in Times of Crisis, as well as Rihards Bambals, Director of the Department of Strategic Communication Coordination, State Chancellery about Navigating the Intersections of Political Communication and Disinformation in the Digital Age. Latvian United Nations Youth Delegation finalised the day with “UN AI Protocol: The Global Governance Simulator”.
The masterclasses were concluded with a closing discussion about Youth Political Participation with Aleksandrs Mironovs, YATA Latvia, Elīna Smetaņina, Youth activist, student of Science
Po University, Paris and Hanna-Stiina Tornius, Estonian Atlantic Treaty Association (EATA).
We are thankful to all participants and lecturers for their participation and hope for more young political leaders in the coming years!