Arctic Connectivity: Security Challenges and Economic Opportunities

Since 2015, Elisabeth Bauer is the Head of the KAS offices for the Baltic States, based in Riga/Latvia. Until October 2019 Elisabeth Bauer was the Head of the KAS offices for the Baltic States and the Nordic Countries based in Riga/Latvia. Since October 1st the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung has a new office in Stockholm which from now on will take care for the Nordic countries.Between 2010 and 2014 she was Head of the KAS regional office for Westphalia based in Dortmund/Germany which focuses first and foremost on political education. Between 2005 and 2010 she was Head of the KAS regional office in Saint Petersburg/Russia. Main topics of her work in the Baltic Sea region are foreign and security policy including the Arctic as well as the establishment and further improvement of networks between Germany and the countries around the Baltic Sea.

Kristi Raik is the Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at the International Centre for Defence and Security in Tallinn since February 2018. She is also Adjunct Professor of International Relations at the University of Turku. She has previously served inter alia as a Senior Research Fellow and Acting Programme Director at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki and an official at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union in Brussels. Raik has published, lectured and commented widely on EU foreign policy and European security, including the EU’s relations with Russia and the Eastern neighbours, EU global strategy and institutional aspects of EU foreign policy-making. She is also an expert on the foreign and security policies of the Baltic states. Raik has a PhD from the University of Turku.

Bart Gaens works as Leading Research Fellow at the Global Security Research Programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, where he is in charge of a project on connectivity in the Indo-Pacific region. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki. He has published on Europe-Asia interregionalism and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process, Japan’s foreign policy and regional role, India’s foreign policy and relations with the EU, domestic politics in Myanmar, and security-related issues in the Asian region. He has also (co)edited volumes and reports on connectivity, EU-Asia relations, the US-China rivalry, transatlantic relations, and Japan’s search for strategic partnerships.

Harri Mikkola is Leading Researcher at the Finnish Foreign and Security Policy Project at FIIA. His research interests cover security and defence policy, national security of supply and societal resilience policies, and developments in the Arctic area. Prior to joining FIIA in 2011, Mikkola worked at the Finnish Defence Command, at the University of Tampere, Finland, and as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Minnesota, USA. Dr Mikkola holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Tampere.

Helge Blakkisrud is Senior Researcher with the Research Group on Russia, Asia and International Trade at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Oslo. He has served as Associate Professor at the Norwegian University Centre in St Petersburg, Russia, in 2005–2009 and 2018; as Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, in 2009–2010; Guest Lecturer at the OSCE Academy, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan since 2008; and Guest Lecturer, Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, University of Oslo, in 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2021. For more than two decades, he has followed Russia’s Northern/Arctic agenda, especially the development of the executive vertical and governance structures, as well as problems of designing and implementing federal programmes for developing the Russian Arctic.

Frank Jüris is Research Fellow of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute (EFPI) at the International Centre for Defence and Security in Tallinn. His research is focused on China’s domestic and foreign policy, EU-China relations, China’s relations with the Central and Eastern European countries in the 16+1 format, and Sino-Russian relations. He holds a BA from Tallinn University and an MA from the University of Tartu. He also holds an MA in Asia-Pacific Studies from Taiwan National Chengchi University. He has gained valuable experience at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Delegation of the European Union to Taiwan and as NGO Mondo volunteer in Burma. He has also worked as Mandarin Chinese lecturer at the University of Tartu and Chinese studies visiting lecturer at Tallinn University.

Yulia Yamineva is Senior Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland Law School and holds the title of docent in climate law and policy. Her work covers climate law and governance in international and national settings. She has contributed to several major UN reports and published in leading disciplinary and interdisciplinary academic journals, including Transnational Environmental Law, Environmental Science & Policy, and Nature Climate Change. Previously Yamineva worked for the UN Climate Change Convention Secretariat and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Yamineva holds a PhD in International Studies from the University of Cambridge.