US Research Day 2019: Information, Intelligence and Trust

invitation only · Seminar Hall, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Arkadiankatu 23 H (inner courtyard), Helsinki · 13.06.2019 09:00 - 11:00

invitation only

Trust is a major foundation of the transatlantic relationship, especially when it comes to intelligence cooperation. Trusting relations have been fostered through decades of capacity building, operational coordination, and established practices of information sharing between allies and partners on both sides of the Atlantic. In the process, the dayto- day workings of transatlantic cooperation have become smooth and routine. Over the last few years, however, the building blocks of mutual trust appear to be eroding as a result of increased geopolitical competition and the misalignment of interests in key issues areas. Clashes between the US and its allies and partners on issues like trade and burden-sharing have become an almost daily topic of concern, as demonstrated by newspaper headlines and Twitter feeds. Has the age of competition hampered mutual trust and its practical consequences, for example, in intelligence activities? How can these emerging transatlantic rifts and sources of mistrust be managed, and even healed, in the future?

The US Research Day 2019 is organised by the Center on US Politics and Power (CUSPP) at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA).

Speakers

Opening remarks

Bart Gaens

Senior Research Fellow, Project Director, FIIA

Bart Gaens is Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs,
and also works as Project Director at the Center on US Politics and Power (CUSPP).
Furthermore, he is Adjunct Professor (Docent) in Japanese Studies at the University of
Helsinki, and Specially-Appointed Associate Professor at the University of Osaka, Japan. In
the recent past he has worked as Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Helsinki.
He has published on Europe–Asia relations, with a special focus on the ASEM (Asia–
Europe Meeting) process. Further research interests include Japan’s foreign policy, as well
as security-related issues in East Asia.

Keynote speaker

Christopher Kojm

Visiting Research Fellow, FIIA

Christopher A. Kojm serves as the Director of the Elliott School’s Leadership, Ethics and
Practice Initiative. He re-joined the School as a Professor of Practice in International
Affairs after serving as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2009 to 2014.
He is also the Director of the US Foreign Policy Summer Program and served previously as
director of the mid-career Master’s in International Policy and Practice program. He taught
previously at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. In government, Chris served as a staffer
on the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 1984-98 under Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, as a
deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1998-2003),
and as deputy director of the 9/11 Commission (2003-04). He was also president of the
9/11 Public Discourse Project, the Commission’s follow-on public education organization
(2004-05). He also served as a Senior Advisor to the Iraq Study Group (2006).

Speakers

Mika Kerttunen

Director, Cyber Policy Institute

D.Soc.Sc. Mika Kerttunen is Director, Cyber Policy Institute, and Senior Research Scientist
at the Department of Software Science, Tallinn University of Technology. He is a graduate of
the Finnish Military Academy and General Staff Officer Course and the Royal Norwegian
Command and Staff College. Kerttunen studied world politics at the University of Helsinki
and analyzed in his 2009 dissertation Indian foreign and nuclear policy. Recently, he has
been focusing on international cyber diplomacy, cyber norms, national cybersecurity
strategies and regional cyber capacity building especially in Asia-Pacific region. Mika’s
latest publications include a critical review of the so called ‘cyberwar’ (Sicherheit und
Fieden, 2018), an analysis of cyber diplomacy (NUPI 2018), a normative analysis of 106
national cybersecurity strategies (EU ISS 2019) and of modelling stability in cyberspace
(NUPI 2019).

Veli-Pekka Kivimäki

Senior Analyst, Finnish Defence Research Agency

Veli-Pekka Kivimäki is a researcher and instructor focusing on open source intelligence
(OSINT) and social media. Kivimäki is an adjunct lecturer in the Geospatial Intelligence
program at Johns Hopkins University, and a visiting lecturer on OSINT at University of
Jyväskylä. He is currently serving as a Senior Analyst at the Finnish Defense Research
Agency, working on strategic analysis of the future operating environment. Kivimäki has
also published analysis and taken part in geospatial investigations related to the Ukraine
conflict with the award-winning Bellingcat group. Prior to working in defense, he worked
fourteen years at Nokia and Microsoft in product development roles, including in cyber
security. He is currently pursuing a doctorate at Finnish National Defense University on
social media intelligence.

chair

Mika Aaltola

US domestic and foreign affairs, great power relations, Finnish foreign and security policy, global governance

attachments