Agenda
The Center for Transatlantic Relations, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University and the Embassy of Austria is pleased invite you to a momentous, whole-day event Walls That Have Fallen—Walls Still to Fall A Meeting between Generations to Remember the Opening of the Iron Curtain on the Austrian-Hungarian Border 25 Years Ago and to Discuss the Present and the Future
This act was the first tear into the Iron Curtain. We have travelled a long way since those fascinating days in history. Still, the project of a Europe Whole and Free and at Peace is not complete. Democracy, human rights and freedoms are being threatened. Our societies in the transatlantic community need a new vision, and a commitment to safeguard our achievements, help others to fulfill their dreams of freedom and cannot stop efforts to break down walls that still plague our own societies.
Friday, May 16, 2014 9:00 am–7:00 pm
Kenney Auditorium
Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
1740 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
SAIS STUDENTS ARE BUILDING A WALL – WE INVITE YOU TO GRAFFITTI YOUR MESSAGE ABOUT “WALLS STILL TO FALL” ON IT
and then JOIN US TO HELP US KNOCK DOWN WALLS THAT STILL EXIST
Agenda
9:00 am Welcome
Introduction: Daniel Hamilton, Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Professor, Center for Transatlantic Relations
9:15 am–10:45 am Session I: Remembering 1989: Opening of the Iron Curtain
Key note: Wolfgang Schüssel, former Chancellor of Austria
Panel discussion:
- Wolfgang Schüssel, former Chancellor of Austria
- Laszlo Kovács, former foreign Minister of Hungary, at the time State Secretary of Foreign Affairs Wolfgang Ischinger, former German Ambassador to the United States; President of the Munich Security Conference
- Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Securitz Forum, Former German Ambassador mto the United States
- Sushma Palmer, wife of Ambassador Mark Palmer, US Ambassador to Budapest at the time
- John Herbst, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine
- Michael Haltzel, Senior Fellow, CTR
10:45 am–12:15 pm Session II: 1989 in the Context of Today’s Challenges
Keynote: Chloe Schwenke, Vice President, Freedom House
Panel Discussion
- Chloe Schwenke, Vice President, Freedom House
- Miklós Haraszti, former Hungarian dissident; Rapporteur for Belarus, OSCE
- Hillary Thomas-Lake, Human Rights Activist; Managing Director and co-founder of LTL Strategies
- Angela Kocze, Roma Rights Activist; Visiting Professor, University of North Carolina
- Solomia Gorokhivska, Ukrainian born violinist, daughter of Soviet dissident poet, Vladimir Gorokhivskyj
- Rosy Gray, Buzzfeed
12:15 pm–1:15 pm Knocking Down Walls
- Jeffrey “Skunk” Baxter, guitarist, formerly with Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. (skyped in from LA)
- Orlando Pardo Lazo, Cuban independent photographer
1:15 pm Lunch break and encounters with speakers at the Wall and “Connections” movie starring Jude Law and Nicolai Khalezin
2:00 pm–3:30 pm Session III: The Walls Still to Fall—For a New Generation
Keynote: Jonas Rolett, Regional Manager for Advocacy, Europe Open Society Foundations
Panel Discussion:
- Andras Simonyi, former Hungarian Ambassador to the US; Managing Director, Center for Transatlantic Relations
- Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada, Belarus Dissidents currently exiled; Co-Founders, Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) group featured in HBO’s Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus;
- Chris Burger, President Student Government Council, SAIS
- Dylan Byrd, SAIS Pride
- Doug Yaeger, Co-producer, Rocking the Kremlin
- Moderator: Dan Hamilton, Executive Director, CTR SAIS
3:30 pm–5:30 pm Party at the Wall
Graffiti the Walls Still to Fall
Knocking Down those Walls
Austrian Beer and Snacks
5:30 pm–7:00 pm Get Ready to Rock for Freedom Live Music by Misspent Youth
*invited
