The 21st edition of the GLOBSEC Forum will take centre stage on 21 – 23 May 2026, in Prague, Czechia. For over two decades, the Forum has established itself as one of Europe’s most influential platforms for shaping global security and stability. This year’s gathering will bring together world leaders, innovators, and changemakers, under the auspices of President of Czechia, Petr Pavel.
The Global Systemic Transformation: 21st-Century Solutions to 21st-Century Challenges
The GLOBSEC Forum routinely garners extensive international media coverage, with global outlets such as BBC, Euronews, AP, Financial Times, AFP, Euractiv, and Politico, ensuring that the Forum’s discussions resonate on a worldwide scale.
Don’t just witness history — be a part of it. Join us for the 21st edition of the GLOBSEC Forum as we confront the world’s most pressing challenges and forge innovative solutions together. Stay connected for updates and become a part of the GLOBSEC community!
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Róbert Vass, President and Founder of GLOBSEC, opened the GLOBSEC Forum 2026 with a deliberately unsentimental framing: Europe is not at the edge of history but in the middle of it, and the old assumptions underpinning three decades of peace and prosperity are gone. He identified five interlocking strategic realities that will define European choices in the coming years. Europe must shift from crisis management to power building. Defence must be understood as an industrial and financial challenge. Private capital must be mobilised at scale. Artificial intelligence must be treated as a sovereignty question. And democracy itself must recover confidence from within. The GLOBSEC Trends 2026 Survey shows that European publics increasingly grasp the stakes, with nearly 70% now supporting a European army. Europe has the talent and the capital; the remaining question is whether it still has the courage.
Czech President, Petr Pavel, used his address to set out a clear-eyed framework for European strategic adaptation, organised around three connected themes. On the European pillar within NATO, he argued that the shift underway is not burden sharing but burden shifting — Europe must move from being defined by what it contributes to the Alliance to being defined by the responsibility and readiness it brings to it, fully integrated into NATO planning, capability targets and command structures rather than developing parallel structures. On NATO-EU cooperation, he identified military mobility as the most actionable near-term opportunity, urging that NATO's operational requirements directly guide EU infrastructure investment, and calling for the inclusion of non-EU security partners. Hi message on Ukraine was clear: Ukraine is not defending itself alone but transforming European security culture, and supporting it is a direct investment in Europe's own future. Speed has become a strategic capability, and history will not wait for Europe to deliberate its way to readiness.
Livestream Link: https://youtube.com/live/K6o0XVEebRg?feature=share
In a chat with Gen. John Allen, the Czech President argued that AI mastery is now a decisive geopolitical variable., citing the stated ambitions of both Russia and China as evidence that Europe cannot afford complacency, and called for the removal of barriers between Europe, the US, and with technologically capable partners worldwide. On AI governance, he rejected the framing of a US-EU competition between speed and regulation, arguing instead that the two approaches are complementary and that internal democratic rivalry over models risks benefiting China. He pointed to Ukraine's defence innovation cycle as a concrete benchmark: drones designed, produced, tested at the front and iterated within days represent a tempo that European procurement and legislative systems are currently incapable of matching, and which must change. He closed by framing that the defining geopolitical variable of the coming decade will not be territorial size but speed of innovation.
Livestream Link: https://youtube.com/live/Ihmif6sAbGQ?feature=share
The panellists used this session to challenge the terms of conventional debate about Europe’s decline, arguing that the continent's apparent weaknesses — fragmentation, regulatory complexity, asymmetric threat perceptions across member states — are also sources of resilience that more centralised powers cannot replicate. The panel was unsparing about Europe's self-inflicted vulnerabilities: household savings flowing into American markets, capital markets that remain nationally fragmented despite decades of effort, procurement and regulatory cycles too slow to match Ukraine's battlefield innovation tempo, and a demographic trajectory that no government has found the political courage to address honestly. Ivan Krastev offered the session's sharpest reframe: the problem is not which answer Europe chooses but that it keeps asking the same questions, and genuine transformation requires changing the questions themselves. The session closed with a shared forecast: the strategic error Europe will most regret in ten years is not military unreadiness but the failure to secure control over its own data.
Livestream Link: https://youtube.com/live/tlzX8it_OV0?feature=share
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President of Czechia
Chairman of the Board
CETIN International
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ghana
Minister for the Digital Economy and Sovereignty of the Netherlands
AI Master of Ceremony
Minister of State for Foreign Trade of the United Arab Emirates
Secretary General
Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf
United States Marine Corps Four-Star General (Ret.)
and Commander, NATO International Security Assistance Force (Ret.)
Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine
Member
Parliament of Kenya
Senior Lecturer and Co-director: Performing City Resilience
Brunel University of London
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
and Senior Fellow, Johns Hopkins University
Hosted by Aspen Institute Central Europe
How can the EU and US reduce vulnerabilities and structural dependencies across the industrial, material, and increasingly digital foundations of modern energy systems without triggering economically damaging decoupling, slowing the energy transition, or fragmenting transatlantic coordination? Should these vulnerabilities be viewed primarily as a security issue or an economic competitiveness issue? This roundtable will focus on identifying where dependencies are most acute, what level of exposure is strategically tolerable, and whether US and EU approaches are converging or quietly diverging amid ongoing trade uncertainty. The discussion will touch on emerging markets and alternative partners as potential options for diversification in materials and technologies. It will explore how recent statutes, regulations, trade deals, and new partnership discussions are driving this quest for diversification and for the growth of native industries. And it will provide a sober assessment of the current realities and the obstacles to be overcome to achieve meaningful de-risking.
Hosted by GLOBSEC
Europe’s security environment increasingly demands credible, measurable readiness, as the war in Ukraine continues to expose gaps between political commitments, defence investment, and actual warfighting capability. At the same time, rapid technological change is compressing innovation cycles and challenging traditional procurement and force-generation models. This exclusive format brings together senior policymakers, military leadership, and industry to focus on how Europe can translate intent into deployable capability, with a focus on readiness, industrial capacity, and lessons from Ukraine.
Agenda:
Official Welcome by John Barter, Senior Advisor to CEO, GLOBSEC
Readiness Under Pressure: Military Priorities in a Non-Peacetime Environment: 1-on-1 Session with General Karel Řehka, Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, moderated by Martin Sklenár, Distinguished Fellow, GLOBSEC
Panel I: Scaling European Defence: From Investment to Deployable Capability
Organized in cooperation with Baryon Investment Fund and Foundation Institute for Eastern Studies
From cruise missiles and hypersonic systems to drones and loitering munitions. As Europe faces rapidly advancing aerial threats, air defence has become a defining element of its security posture. This confidential roundtable will explore strategic priorities, assess operational risks, and consider pathways for building a more resilient and integrated European air defence architecture. It will map current capability gaps and vulnerabilities among European nations, identify the most pressing operational risks, and explore pathways toward a more resilient and integrated air and missile defence architecture. The discussion will focus on improving interoperability and compatibility between NATO, EU, and national systems, including data architectures and command-and-control frameworks. The session will also consider the political, institutional, and financial enablers required to strengthen European air defence. In particular, it will explore how NATO, the EU, and national governments can better align strategies, funding mechanisms, and operational concepts. Finally, the roundtable will aim to define actionable next steps, highlighting priority initiatives that could be advanced within the next 12–24 months and identifying areas for deeper collaboration, pilot projects, or follow-up working groups.
Hosted by GLOBSEC in cooperation with Clean Air Task Force
Central Europe is a critical test case for Europe’s nuclear revival, as ambitious political commitments increasingly confront the realities of delivery. Nuclear power continues to play a significant role in climate policy and energy security, providing 24% of the EU electricity but recent developments have highlighted new constraints, particularly around financing, EU state aid rules, and project execution.
Since last year, while the EU’ ambition for nuclear energy increased, a greater attention has shifted to how large and small projects can be financed, approved, and implemented in practice, including the friction between national strategies and EU-level legal frameworks. In this context, the EU SMR Strategy marks a turning point, calling for an SMR coalition of willing Member States and opening a window for more coordinated approaches to deployment. Strategy and the ongoing debate on the next EU budget illustrate the complexity of moving from planning to delivery.
This session builds on GLOBSEC’s project-level mapping of nuclear developments in Central Europe, assessing their maturity and readiness. The discussion will focus not only on implementation gaps, and bottlenecks, but also on how governments can translate ambitions into real outcomes and make strategic choices, including discussing the emerging role of an orderbook approach—aggregating demand across countries to de-risk investment, enable standardisation, and unlock supply chain scale.
Where are the main gaps between political ambition and delivery capacity?
Are governments implicitly relying on extensions to bridge delays in new build?
How are the current EU financing mechanism rules affecting nuclear project timelines and financing?
Is Central Europe evolving toward a coordinated nuclear cluster, or remaining a set of parallel national projects? Are there opportunities for orderbooks, shared supply chains, workforce, or regulatory cooperation?
To what extent can orderbooks and coordinated procurement models reduce costs, attract financing, and accelerate timelines for both SMRs and large-scale projects?
Hosted by GLOBSEC GeoTech Center
Europe has built the world's most comprehensive AI regulatory framework. But regulation alone does not produce adoption—and without adoption at scale, Europe risks ceding its economicfuture to faster-moving economies. Already, 51% of Europe's highest growth startups are considering relocating outside Europe to scale faster. The sectors that form the backbone of European economies — manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, energy, and public services continue to lag in deploying AI at scale. The barriers are not primarily about technology. They are about howquickly European businesses can move, scale, and compete in a global AI economy where innovation cycles are compressing from decades to months. Skills shortages and other barriers thatburden integration are slowing adoption precisely when speed matters most. With the EU pursues its competitiveness agenda, the priority is to move from diagnosis to prescription, pinpointing the specific policy, procurement, and investment reforms that will determine whether AI reaches Europe's factory floors, hospitals, and public services at scale —and whether Europe capturesthe €191 billion in potential economic value at stake.
Hosted by GLOBSEC, funded by the EU
Democracies and our societies are challenged and are being torn apart by polarisation and FIMI. Citizens are living in increasing contested realties with alleged very little common ground with people with different opinions. In addition, internal grievances, divisions, and low trust in public institutions are being utilised by hostile actors seeking to fragment societies even further. Recent experiences in frontline democracies, including Moldova, illustrate how these dynamics can be deliberately intensified under conditions of geopolitical pressure, directly targeting societal cohesion and democratic resilience. Much work has been done to understand these vulnerabilities and threats and map the cognitive battlefield. Yet a critical question remains: how do we (re-)build and strengthen our societal cohesion and consensus and thus make our societies more resilient?
The aim of this side session is to explore societal resilience in action - from building common values, trust, societal bonds, shared purpose to societal preparedness and resilience. The discussion will highlight practical examples, lessons learned, and approaches that build communities, reconnect and unite (polarised) societies. At its core, the session will explore how societal resilience can become a shared civic practice, strengthening communities’ capacity to withstand manipulation while reinforcing democratic values, trust, and unity.
How do we find common ground and values in polarised societies and unite to meet the myriad crises democracies and our societies face?
How to foster dialogue, inclusion, and consensus-building in fragmented information environments and societies?
What approaches help engage citizens as active participants in resilience?
How can community and resilience-building efforts be sustained across crises?
Hosted by GLOBSEC
Presentation of the GLOBSEC CEE Her Report: From Access to Impact: Bridging the Gender Gap in AI and Digital Transformation across Central and Eastern European SMEs.
AI integration and technological uptake are no longer optional - they are the primary vehicles for efficiency, innovation, and competitive advantage. Yet evidence consistently shows that under-investing in women across research, governance, and entrepreneurship stifles a nation's total competitive potential. Inclusive digital transformation is not a social goal; it is an economic necessity. This CEE Her breakfast roundtable brings together business leaders, policymakers, and experts to examine the reality gap between the perceived and actual potential of digital transformation- and how gender shapes it. The discussion is complemented by the launch of GLOBSEC's latest CEE Her publication: From Access to Impact: Bridging the Gender Gap in AI and Digital Transformation across Central and Eastern European SMEs, drawing on original empirical data from Czechia, Austria, Slovakia, and Bulgaria to identify gender-specific barriers and provide actionable recommendations for policymakers, business associations, and civil society.
What is the gap between the perceived and actual adoption of digital tools in businesses today?
What practical hurdles continue to stifle digital transition, and how do these differ for women?
What roadmap could accelerate inclusive digital transformation in support of a resilient European economy?
Hosted by GLOBSEC in cooperation with Armed Conflict Location & Event Data
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Nordic-Baltic space (Scandinavia, Baltic states, Poland) has become Europe's most active hybrid frontline. Sabotage, drone incursions, arson-for-hire, GPS jamming, the recruitment of criminal and deniable proxies, and FIMI now form a persistent, interlocking pattern of sub-threshold activity, with incident density higher here than in any other European sub-region. A defining feature of this landscape is outsourcing: hostile states increasingly extend reach and preserve deniability by contracting criminal networks and third-country nationals recruited online — a heterogeneous pool that spans Russian-speakers in the Baltics, Ukrainians in transit, Telegram-recruited locals, and nationals from further afield, including the Western Balkans.
The side session brings together two complementary evidence bases. The first, anchored in ACLED's conflict tracking and analysis, maps how sub-threshold tactics are evolving across the Nordic-Baltic region — what patterns are emerging, how operations are shifting in scope and strategic purpose, and how EU and national responses are keeping pace. The second, drawing on GLOBSEC and ICCT research on digital recruitment, illicit ecosystems, and criminal-proxy dynamics, provides comparative framing from the Western Balkans on how hostile actors weaponise Europe's digital and criminal landscapes to source deniable operational capacity.
How hybrid threats in the Nordic-Baltic space are evolving in scope, diffusion, and strategic purpose
The outsourcing and deniability dynamic — how hostile states rely on criminal networks and third-country nationals recruited online — with comparative insights from GLOBSEC/ICCT research on the Western Balkans
Policy responses at the EU and national level, including Germany's evolving defence policy role and its potential contribution to shaping collective responses to persistent hybrid threats;
The indispensable role of public–private partnerships in improving real-time anomaly detection, and strengthening secure information-sharing between industry, law enforcement, and EU institutions.
Hosted by GLOBSEC Kyiv Office
Presentation of GLOBSEC's report "Seven Security Scenarios on Russian War in Ukraine for 2026-2027"
As one of the signature GLOBSEC analytical foresight products since 2022, this iteration on Security Scenarios on Russian War in Ukraine will provide with an aggregated experts' assessment of the security landscape in Europe for next two years. Where will the world be driven – to peace settlement and cessation of hostilities in Ukraine or to prolonged war of attrition? Would we praise the US mediation efforts for a sustainable peace or treat them as a timebomb for next Russian attack on Ukraine in case of unfavorable terms imposed on Ukraine under coercion? Will we see Europe re-establishing itself as an important and influential global player and keeper of strategic stability on the continent, or will it become a silent outsider when Europe’s security architecture will be redefined?
These and other relevant questions reflecting negotiating dynamics will be addressed by a highly competent panel of experts, both from Ukraine, Europe and the US.
The panel will look into emerging seven security scenarios suggested for analysis: ‘Dusted by Ashes of Other Wars’, ‘No War, Nor Peace-Prolonged Limbo State’, ‘Gaining, but not Winning: Cumulative Operative-Tactical Advantage of Russia’, ‘Dragging Conflict: Exhaustion War with Internal Tensions and External Compensations’, ‘Cursed Peace: a Peace Agreement Toxic for Security in Europe’, ‘Living Unhappily After (Minsk Accord’s Phantom): Strategic Ambiguity Peace Settlement’ and ‘Seizing Momentum: Ukraine Gears Up on Internal Resources and Captures Opportunities Externally to Achieve its Strategic Advantage over Russia’.
Organized in cooperation with Journalists for Human Rights
As Russian and Belarusian authorities escalate their campaign of transnational repression, targeting opposition leaders, journalists, and human rights defenders in exile, European, Canadian, and allied democracies must respond with equal resolve to protect those most vulnerable. Authoritarian regimes deploy a broad toolkit of coercion designed to silence dissent well beyond their borders. These operations threaten not only individual freedoms and political pluralism, but also the security and democratic sovereignty of allied nations.
At this critical juncture, transnational repression is not only a human rights issue – it is a strategic challenge to democratic resilience. Addressing it requires a coordinated response combining awareness, protection mechanisms, and international cooperation. In response to these challenges and their implications for European and Canadian human rights commitments, this session will also serve as a platform to sign a declaration establishing a Global Alliance Against Transnational Repression.
This session will convene key stakeholders – including diplomats, policymakers, civil society leaders and journalists – to cultivate a shared understanding of the evolving threat landscape and identify strategies to deter and disrupt repression beyond borders.
How can awareness of transnational repression and its impact on vulnerable communities in Europe and Canada be raised?
What policy responses can address transnational repression and its human rights implications?
How can international cooperation be strengthened to coordinate countermeasures and support collaboration among NGOs, journalists, and advocacy groups?
Hosted by Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung
The EU Single Market is built on four freedoms, but they do not operate equally in practice. The free movement of goods works relatively well, the free movement of persons largely functionsbut remains politically sensitive, and capital is legally free yet still fragmented across national systems. Services, which make up the bulk of the EU economy, remain the Single Market’s biggest gap, as divergent rules limit firms’ ability to scale across borders and may weaken Europe’s global competitiveness. While the EU performs relatively well in supporting startups, it underperforms in creating the conditions for scale-ups to expand across Member States, often leaving them nationally focused or prompting expansion outside the EU.
To strengthen the Single Market, the EU may need to further reduce regulatory fragmentation, better enable cross-border business activity, and unlock private scale-up investment. In this context, the proposed 28th regime aims to create a voluntary EU-wide legal framework to simplify company formation and operations, potentially easing cross-border service provision, though its uptake, scope, and political feasibility remain uncertain. On the capital side, initiatives such as the Savings and
Investment Union seek to reduce fragmentation and improve cross-border flows, but can even the digital euro go further in unifying Europe’s financial system and strengthening the free movement of capital across the Single Market? Where are current policies heading, and when might we see tangible results, not only on paper, but in practice?
What is the main weakness of the EU Single Market today?
Can the proposed 28th regime realistically reduce legal barriers for businesses, and would it have real economic impact and political support?
What policies would you propose - especially in the free movement of services and capital - to make the Single Market fully functional?
Hosted by GLOBSEC in cooperation with Trusted Future and Ilvesa Foundation
Cybersecurity has never consumed more resources or delivered less certainty. Spending is rising, regulation is expanding, and awareness has never been higher. Yet incidents grow, financial losses increase, and AI is fundamentally changing what attacks look like, how fast they move, and who can launch them. This private breakfast discussion continues a conversation launched at MSC in February 2026 by Trusted Future and CEPA. The aim of this series is to move the European cybersecurity discussion from reporting failures to building operational resilience.
Hosted by GLOBSEC
Europe’s information environment is increasingly shaped by competing narratives that exploit societal divisions, weaken trust in institutions, and influence public debate across borders. Research from Central Europe, the Black Sea region, and Western Europe shows that these narratives travel quickly, adapt to local contexts, and often draw on shared emotional triggers. Findings from CEDMO, BROD, and NARDIV illustrate how narrative clusters evolve, how they appeal to different audiences, and how online interactions, especially in comment spaces, reveal deeper societal tensions. Although national contexts differ, several common vulnerabilities are emerging. These include polarising themes that target democratic processes, narratives that question institutional legitimacy, and content that reshapes public perceptions of international developments. The spread and impact of these narratives highlight the importance of coordinated analysis, cross-border cooperation, and practical mechanisms for strengthening societal resilience.
This session will bring together experts, public authorities, and platform representatives to examine the insights generated by three major European projects. The discussion will consider how Europe can better understand, anticipate, and respond to narrative conflicts that have the potential to shape democratic outcomes.
Organized in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the Czech Republic & The Platform of European Memory and Conscience
Historical memory has become an operational domain in Europe's evolving security environment. Authoritarian regimes increasingly instrumentalise interpretations of the past to justify aggression, obscure accountability, and undermine democratic cohesion — deploying historical revisionism alongside cyber operations, economic coercion, and information warfare to advance geopolitical objectives and fragment European unity.
This session will examine how credible, evidence-based historical memory can be integrated into Europe's security and resilience architecture — and how confronting the legacy of totalitarianism contributes to both moral accountability and strategic deterrence. The discussion will bring together policymakers, security practitioners, historians, and disinformation experts to assess how memory can be operationalised as part of Europe's response to hybrid threats, including the role of institutional initiatives such as a Pan-European Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism in Brussels.
Questions to be addressed include:
How is historical revisionism being operationalised within hybrid threat strategies, and what lessons can be drawn from Ukraine regarding the use of history to legitimise aggression?
What policy tools are available to integrate historical memory into EU security, defence, and resilience frameworks — and how can evidence-based narratives strengthen societal resilience against disinformation?
How can European institutions and member states coordinate more effectively in responding to weaponised historical narratives, and what role can symbolic initiatives such as a Pan-European memorial play in a broader strategic approach?
Organized in cooperation with the Gulf Research Center
The EU has been active in liaising and expressing support with the GCC States during the US-Israel war with Iran. The high-level meetings with leaders from Middle East countries, along with the EU-GCC Ministerial, served as platforms for dialogue and coordination.
The EU-GCC partnership built over the past years has showcased its value, and despite the regional situation continuing to be volatile, there is an opening to build on this engagement. The current crisis provides an opportunity, even an imperative, for extensive and constructive collaboration between the EU and the GCC states to begin forging a more stable regional order rooted in diplomacy, economic interdependence, security cooperation, and adherence to the multilateral rules-based international order.
The discussion will convene high-level policymakers, analysts, and practitioners from the EU and Gulf states to explore how both regions can reshape cooperation and move into a forward-looking, structured partnership.
What shared strategic interests do the EU and GCC states have in the aftermath of the Iran war?
How has the war altered the strategic calculations of GCC states vis-à-vis the EU?
How can the EU and GCC countries enhance cooperation on maritime security issues, air and missile defence, and protection of critical infrastructure (ports, desalination, LNG, undersea cables)?
How can the EU and GCC countries leverage their economic and investment partnerships for stability?
How can the EU and GCC states jointly strengthen energy security?
What short‑term deliverables could build momentum toward a structured partnership?
Pobřežní 1, 186 00 Praha 8-Karlín, Czechia
