By BSF Team in Mobility | October 10, 2019
In October 2019, Baltic Security Foundation hosted Master of International Affairs students from Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service for the Young Leaders Mobility Program in Rīga. The students were led by Dr. Gabriela Marin-Thornton.
While on the program, the students had the opportunity to visit the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Parliament, and participated in the Rīga Conference, organized by the Latvian MFA, MoD, and Latvian Transatlantic Organisation.
At Parliament, the students got to meet Deputy Speaker Dagmāra Beitnere-Le Galla and discussed U.S.- Latvian relations, the European security architecture, and the importance of NATO for both countries.
At MFA, the students met with Parliamentary Secretary Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Advisor to the Minister Gunda Reire, Second Secretary of the American and the Caribbean Division Egils Leimanis, and Third Secretary of NATO and European Security Policy Division Linda Jaunaraja-Janvare, learning more about Latvia in the international arena, priorities of national and European foreign policy, and discussed the factors that determine the local security perception. The students will return to complete their Capstone class and prepare a presentation to the Atlantic
Council and a publication together with BSF, raising scholarly awareness of top regional security issues and considering possible solutions.
The Young Leaders Mobility Program was made possible in cooperation with the BAFF - Baltic- American Freedom Foundation, The Jamestown Foundation and the Latvian Political Science Association.