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Europe's Global Gateway towards the Indo-Pacific

30/09/2022

The Franco-German Observatory of the Indo-Pacific, co organized by Sciences Po-CERI and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA).   ...

Speaker:

Ambassador Romana Vlahutin, Special Envoy for Connectivity in the European External Action Service (on sabbatical leave)

Ambassador Romana Vlahutin is a career diplomat. Before joining Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999 she worked as an analyst for the Bassiouni UN Commission for former Yugoslavia, the UN Tribunal (ICTY) in The Hague and the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC. As a Croatian diplomat she served in embassies in Washington (Head of Political Section) and Belgrade (Deputy Ambassador), and as the Head of Strategic Analysis and Policy Planning at the MFA in Zagreb (2000-2004). She also served as a Political Director of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo (2006-2007). From 2010-2014 she was the Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of Croatia. Most recently she was posted as the EU Ambassador to Albania (2014-2018). As of 1 March 2019 she has been appointed Special Coordinator and Ambassador at Large for Connectivity in the European External Action Service.

Dr Maaike Okano-Heijmans, Senior Research Fellow, Clingendael Institute, The Netherlands

Maaike OKANO-HEIJMANS is a senior research fellow at the Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’ in The Hague, where she leads the ‘Geopolitics of Technology and Digitalisation’ work programme. She is also a visiting lecturer in the Master of Science in International Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD) of the University of Leiden.
Her main research interests are in connectivity and the geopolitics of technology and digitalisation in EU-Asia relations, with a special focus on China, Japan and the Indo-Pacific. A key question underlying much of her work is how the fourth industrial revolution reshapes international relations, and what this means for the EU and its member states – in particular the Netherlands. Recent projects focus on digital connectivity, digital for development, China’s Digital Silk Road and Europe’s Digital Decade. In addition, since joining Clingendael in 2006 she has worked on issues related to consular affairs and diplomacy – also known as 'citizen security' or 'duty of care'.

Chair & Moderation:

Prof. Dr. Patrick Köllner, Vice President of the GIGA 
Dr. David Camroux, Honorary Researcher, Sciences Po-CERI.

Scientific coordinators : Christophe Jaffrelot, Sciences Po-CERI / CNRS, David Camroux, Sciences Po - CERI, Patrick Köllner, GIGA and Amrita Narlikar, GIGA.

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