Moderator: Pavol Demeš

Pavol Demeš is Bratislava-based expert on international relations and civil society, an author and a photographer.  Prior to the Velvet Revolution, Demeš was a biomedical researcher at Comenius University in Bratislava. He is a graduate of Charles University in Prague. After the democratic changes of 1989, Demeš helped found several NGOs and served in the Slovak government.  He served as the director of the Department of Foreign Relations in the Ministry of Education, and as the Minister of International Relations from 1991 to 1992. He also served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Slovak Republic, Michal Kovac. From 2000 until 2010, Demeš served as the Director for Central and Eastern Europe of the German Marshall Fund of the United States based in Bratislava. Now he is non-resident Senior Fellow with GMF US and a board member of the European Endowment for Democracy. He has his own program discussing international relations and diplomacy on an Internet TV program with the Slovak Press Agency.