What are the critical maritime security challenges of the confined Baltic Sea region today and to what extent are they inter-regional?
What counter-strategies do key stakeholders employ and what are their security policy implications?
What are the risks and prospects for tomorrow?

These questions will be addressed by the panellists of the inaugural symposium of the annual Baltic Sea Strategy Forum series in Vaasa, Finland, co-arranged by Åbo Akademi University (ÅA), Swedish Defence University (SEDU), Institute for Security
Policy at Kiel University (ISPK) and Centre for Military Studies (CMS) at the University of Copenhagen.

The symposium in Vaasa is preceded by the public PhD viva voce of Lt Cdr Stefan Lundqvist, orally defending his thesis titled “Continuity and Change in post-Cold War Maritime Security: A Study of the Strategies Pursued by the US, Sweden and Finland 1991–2016” in the presence of Professor Dr. Joachim Krause, Director of the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University. Professor Mikko Hupa, Chancellor of ÅA, will welcome the participants and Flotilla Admiral Ewa Skoog Haslum, Vice Chancellor of SEDU will introduce the inaugural symposium of the Baltic Sea Strategy Forum series. In its sole panel, Dr. Sebastian Bruns, Head of Center for Maritime Strategy and Security at ISPK and Dr. Gary John Schaub Jr, Centre for Military Studies at the University of Copenhagen, will join Professor Till as speakers and present their forward-looking views on the security of the Baltic Sea. The symposium concludes with a panel moderated by Lt Col Anders Enström, Head of the Maritime Operations Section at SEDU. The concluding panel is held under Chatham House rule.