About Speaker
Latika M Bourke is The Nightly’s Writer-at-Large in London, specialising in geopolitics.
She is a co-presenter of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Global Roaming podcast, focusing on foreign policy and Australia’s place in the world.
She is an accomplished moderator and MC, having moderated panels at the Munich Security Conference, Delphi Economic Forum, the Australian Institute of International Affairs annual conference, Hamburg Sustainability Conference as well as moderated and MCed GLOBSEC.
She is also an Expert Associate at the Australian National University’s National Security College.
Latika also hosts Latika Takes: The Podcast, whose guests include Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Virgin co-founder Richard Branson, Rtd US General and former CIA Director David Petraeus and more.
She regularly appears on the BBC, Sky UK, Monocle and Times Radio. Latika previously spent eight years in the Canberra press gallery and previously worked for The Sydney Morning Herald & The Age, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and 2UE Radio.
She has also been published in CNN, PoliticsHome, iNews, UnHerd, The Spectator, Australia and more.
Speaker
GLOBSEC Forum 2026 Preview: Global Systemic Transformation
Join us as the MCs of the GLOBSEC Forum 2026 open the proceedings and set the stage for the forum’s key themes and discussions.
Keynote
Global Systemic Transformation
Wednesday, 20. 5. 2026
18:50–19:00 CEST
Albright Stage
MCs' Scene Set
Join us as this year's Forum MCs kick off the official opening of GLOBSEC Forum 2026.
Keynote
Thursday, 21. 5. 2026
09:00–09:05 CEST
Havel Stage
Moderator
Europe’s High Stakes Moment
The European Union entered 2026 navigating simultaneous crises that together amount to a stress test of its institutional coherence: war in the Middle East with direct consequences for European energy security, Russia’s relentless war of aggression against Ukraine, a competitive challenge that the Draghi report laid bare and deepening questions about the future shape of transatlantic relations. This is no longer only a question of crisis management. It is a test of whether Europe can act decisively, strengthen its democratic foundations, and position itself as a credible geopolitical power in an increasingly fragmented world.
- With defence investment accelerating and integration deepening, how does Europe ensure democratic accountability keeps pace with strategic ambition?
- What will it take to turn the Draghi competitiveness agenda into reality — and is the current institutional architecture ready to move at the speed the moment requires?
- What is the state of European democracy and how does the Parliament protect the integrity of its institutions at a time of rising populism, foreign information manipulation and interference, and geopolitical pressure?
- Energy security is back at the top of the European agenda — what does a credible, sovereign energy policy look like, and what progress is already being made?
- As the transatlantic relationship evolves, what does European strategic autonomy mean in practice — and what political choices will it require?
Executive Summary Roberta Metsola used her keynote to reframe what is often described as a crisis of European confidence as instead a crisis of European execution, arguing that the continent has the capabilities, resources and political mandate to act, but has not yet chosen to bring them together at the scale the moment demands. Her three priorities: defence coordination, economic completion and strategic trade were presented not as separate policy tracks but as mutually reinforcing dimensions of a single project: making Europe a reliable, agile actor in a world that has already moved on from the assumptions of the post-Cold War era. On enlargement, she was direct and personal, drawing on her own experience of Malta's 2004 accession to argue that the economic and security gains for existing member states from enlargement have always exceeded expectations, and that telling Ukrainians who are fighting for European security to wait indefinitely would be both dishonest and strategically self-defeating.
Livestream Link: https://youtube.com/live/1CirPHbR56Q?feature=share
Keynote Remarks and Chat
Global Systemic Transformation
Thursday, 21. 5. 2026
18:25–18:50 CEST
Havel Stage
The Board of Peace: Inside the Plan
In Cooperation with the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy After two years of war, Gaza faces a new and uncertain chapter. A fragile US-brokered ceasefire has created a narrow opening — and into that opening, an untested international authority has been inserted with an enormous mandate: promote stability, restore governance, and secure enduring peace and reconstruction.
- What is the actual situation in Gaza today — and what does the ceasefire make possible, and what does it not?
- Where are the biggest gaps between the plan on paper and the reality on the ground?
- Who holds real authority under this framework — and what happens when mandates clash?
- How do you build a technocratic government from scratch in a shattered political landscape?
- What does success look like in one year? In five? What is the single biggest threat to the plan right now?
Executive Summary Nikolay Mladenov’s public account of the Board of Peace's Gaza strategy, including the presentation of a full roadmap to Hamas on disarmament and civilian transition, the previous day. His analysis was notable for its precision and honesty about the difficulties: the ceasefire is holding precariously with near-daily violations, humanitarian access remains below agreed volumes, and Hamas disarmament, the central requirement of the 20-point plan, is something he acknowledged Hamas will find extremely difficult to accept. His framing of the alternative was unsparing: if the current status quo holds, Gaza becomes a permanently divided, permanently deteriorating catastrophe that ends the prospect of a Palestinian state and guarantees another major conflict. Whether Hamas disarms is, in his view, ultimately a question of whether it chooses to act in the interest of the people it nominally represents or in the interest of its own organisational survival. He declined to predict the outcome, but said he hoped that if the conference were held again in a year, the disarmament question would already be settled. Livestream Link: https://youtube.com/live/Xbuv0hAdPVc?feature=share
Chat
Middle East
Friday, 22. 5. 2026
12:50–13:10 CEST
Albright Stage
A Two-Front Challenge: Russia–China Alignment and Global Security
The evolving partnership between Moscow and Beijing is reshaping global security dynamics. Beyond individual national capabilities, the deepening political, military, and economic coordination between Russia and China presents new challenges for Europe and the Indo-Pacific. This session explores how the bilateral alignment impacts NATO, regional security architectures, and the management of simultaneous crises across two continents.
- How do Russia and China coordinate politically, militarily, and economically, and what drives this partnership?
- In what ways does their alignment challenge Western security structures in Europe and the Indo-Pacific?
- What risks arise from concurrent crises in Ukraine and Taiwan, and how could NATO and regional partners respond?
- How might the Russia–China partnership reshape long-term strategic planning for Europe and Indo-Pacific security frameworks?
Executive Summary Richard Weitz broke down Russia-China alignment across diplomatic, informational, security and economic dimensions, identifying where cooperation is operationally deep and where it remains symbolic. James Crabtree framed the strategic danger around China's primary fear being a Putin loss rather than a Putin victory: any Ukrainian military success that threatens Russian position is likely to increase rather than decrease Chinese material support. Oleksii Reznikov's account of a three-minute corridor conversation with China's then-Defence Minister, later arrested, illustrated both the volatility within the Chinese system and Ukraine's need to maintain complex simultaneous relationships with countries supporting both sides in its war. Raimond Kaljulaid offered a structurally interesting reframing: European rearmament combined with US disengagement signals may have removed the two-front dilemma for the United States, but creates a closing-window logic that could accelerate risk-taking by those who perceive the opportunity diminishing. Young June Park's account of North Korea's battlefield transformation drew less attention than it warranted: the deployment in Kursk was not merely a tactical contribution to Russia but a strategic upgrade for North Korea. Livestream Link: https://youtube.com/live/aIVt-6IrpcI?feature=share
Panel Session
Ukraine
Indo-Pacific
Friday, 22. 5. 2026
15:45–16:35 CEST
Schwarzenberg Stage
