By Tom Dyble:

PSSI CONFERENCE ON ASIA-PACIFIC SECURITY CHALLENGES

On September 7-9, I attended a conference on Asia-Pacific Security Challenges sponsored by the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) under the leadership of Oldřich Černý.  While it might be obvious why I wanted to use this meeting as an excuse to visit Prague, I also wanted to learn more about PSSI and other think tanks in the Atlas family.

The conference was a superb event held in the Czernin Palace in the facilities of the Czech Foreign Ministry near the historic Prague Castle. The conference examined the implications for Europe and the United States of the security and economic issues in Eastern, Southern, and Central Asia. Participants talked about energy demands and supplies, ballistic missile defense, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and human rights, against the background of the recent Russian invasion of the Republic of Georgia. PSSI intends to post the entire conference proceedings on its website.

In his welcoming remarks, Karel Schwarzenberg, the Czech minister of Foreign Affairs, advised: “If we don’t understand culture, we cannot develop security”.  While I did my part to understand the culture of Prague, I also came to recognize the key leadership role of the Czech Republic in the security affairs of Eastern Europe and beyond.

In addition to PSSI, I visited two other think tanks in Prague that contribute to this leadership role.  The Civic Institute led by Roman Joch promotes ideas and principles necessary for free and stable democratic societies.  The Center for Economics and Politics led by Petr Mach formulates and promotes public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom and Trans-Atlantic relationship.  These thinks tanks are the teachers of the next generation of Czech leaders.  As evidenced by the students of the PSSI Security Scholars Program that I met at the conference, I can report that my new Prague friends are doing a terrific job in raising a bountiful crop of future intellectual entrepreneurs who are firmly rooted in the principles of liberty and freedom.

Tom Dyble is Atlas’s Colleen Dyble’s father and an Atlas Club Member, he has attended numerous Atlas events over the years.  l