GLOBSEC Forum 2026

About Speaker

Sally A. Painter is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Blue Star Strategies LLC, where she advises corporate, institutional, and public sector organizations in global business development, foreign affairs, and security policy.

Sally has played a significant role in democratic transitions and economic development in Eastern and Central Europe, advancing EU and NATO membership and U.S. legislation to grant visa-free travel to EU members. Sally served in the Clinton Administration as a senior advisor in the Office of Business Liaison for Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown. She also worked as the Director of International at Tenneco Inc., a Fortune 500 company, where she was instrumental in creating and managing the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue and the French American Business Council.

Sally is a senior advisor to the Atlantic Council’s Future Europe Initiative, and a member of the board of directors for the U.S. Committee on NATO, the GLOBSEC U.S. Foundation, and the Global Fairness Initiative. Her contributions have earned her the Golden Laurel Branch Award from Bulgaria, the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit from Hungary, and the Minister of Defense Award for Distinction from Latvia. Sally has also been a Broadway producer of ANN, a dramatization of the life of former Texas Governor Ann Richards, and is a certified downhill ski instructor.

Speaker

When Conflicts Seek to Conquer Minds: Art in the Age of Propaganda, Information Manipulation and Algorithmic Realities

Framing Remarks by Sally Painter, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer Blue Star Strategies

Wars are not only fought over territories, but also over human minds and the imagination. Narratives, emotions and identities are targeted with weapons such as propaganda, information manipulation and algorithmic interference. If culture defines normality, what do freedom and cultural resilience mean for democracies when truth becomes elusive, digital algorithms shape human behaviour and trust in institutions is continuously undermined? Democracy depends on the ability to negotiate shared values and narratives, empathize with others, imagine the future, and actively shape reality rather than simply consume it. Art and culture sustain these abilities. If wars are fought over minds, is the soft power of art a cultural luxury?

Panel Session Arts and Culture

Wednesday, 20. 5. 2026

18:00–18:50 CEST

Albright Stage

From Crisis to Renewal: How Art Turns Trauma into Purpose

Framing Remarks by Sally Painter, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer Blue Star Strategies

In the aftermath of conflict, trauma or displacement, art emerges as a powerful tool for healing, supporting survivors of war, people with disabilities, and victims of environmental crises to process trauma and reclaim their place in society. Collective creativity contributes to building shared purpose, strong communities, and imagining solutions to overcome displacement and disaster. Art empowers marginalized communities, revitalizes damaged spaces, and opens pathways to dialogue, resilience, and reconciliation. This panel explores how artists and cultural initiatives transform survival into renewal, turning pain into purpose and creativity into a foundation for long-term stability and societal healing.

Executive Summary

The panellists together explored how art turns trauma into recovery and social renewal. The conversation covered heritage preservation under bombardment, the significance of Naina Kalu's Turner Prize win for disabled artists, the therapeutic but distinct-from-therapy nature of supported creative practice, and the political weaponisation of cultural destruction by authoritarian regimes. The central argument: art is not what communities turn to after addressing serious problems; it is how they address them. Yuliia Manukian's account of helping artists reconnect rural Ukrainian communities with pre-Soviet cultural histories they had been taught to ignore was among the conference's most quietly powerful contributions, a reminder that the battle for Ukraine is also a battle over identity.

Livestream Link: https://youtube.com/live/ldiXwZB0Z2w?feature=share

Panel Session Arts and Culture

Friday, 22. 5. 2026

09:00–09:45 CEST

Albright Stage

Moderator

Saving the Future of Ukraine - Caring for Next Generations

Explore the topic with the help of the special documentary produced by GLOBSEC and Nova Film (Ukraine) on the impact of war traumas on children in Ukraine PTSD. Invisible Scars. Children Trailer.

The future of Ukraine lies in the hands of the next generations of Ukrainians. This will be central to successful reconstruction and a prerequisite for a prosperous Ukraine. With nearly 2 millions of young Ukrainians being refugees of the war, 1,5 million staying in the temporarily occupied territories, allegedly 700 thousand being forcefully deported to Russia, and around 5 million suffering daily horrors of the war, the issue of their mental and physical health becomes paramount for the future prosperity of the country.

How prepared are Ukraine and the international community to address these challenges?
What is at stake, and what are the key issues that need to be tackled?

Executive Summary

Panel consisting of legal experts, diplomats, civil society leaders and former ministers confronting one of the most acute and under-resourced dimensions of Russia's war against Ukraine: the systematic abduction, indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children. The scale is staggering, an estimated 20,000 documented abductions, 1.5 million children living under occupation and subject to forced Russification, and fewer than 2,100 returned after four years of effort. The message was clear: international community has failed these children collectively, the current pace of return is not viable, and the mechanisms in place are necessary but entirely insufficient on their own. Thordis Gylfadottir delivered the session's most sobering quantitative warning: at current return rates, many abducted children will be adults before they can be brought home, and 1.5 million more in occupied territory remain entirely outside the diplomatic conversation. The panel closed with a unanimous call: Europe must take the leadership seat, any peace process must include children as a central and non-negotiable condition.

Livestream Link: https://youtube.com/live/k8bUECm2kvU?feature=share

Panel Session Ukraine

Thursday, 21. 5. 2026

11:10–12:00 CEST

Schwarzenberg Stage