The democratic world’s plate is overflowing with challenges to global security, including threats to European security due to the re-emergence of a revisionist Russia. The Tbilisi International Conference provides a unique platform and brings together experienced political and security leaders from the United States, Western Europe, Georgia and the wider Euro-Atlantic community to discuss the vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace; the challenges facing Europe’s eastern nations; and strategies to move forward.
Hosted in the heart of the Caucasus by the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University and the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC), the Tbilisi
International Conference has earned a reputation as a can’t-miss event for leaders across
Georgia, the United States and Europe.
Since 2015, each September, the conference brings together regional experts on security issues, along with Georgian policymakers, civil society activists, and the business community – with a view toward keeping Georgia high on the transatlantic agenda, and on track in its democratic progress and transatlantic aspirations.
In various years, the Conference featured remarks from the President, Prime Minister, and Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia; President Kersti Kaljulaid of Estonia; U.S. Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson; U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs A. Wess Mitchell; Philip Reeker, Assistant Secretary of the Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Lithuania John Tefft; senior NATO and EU officials; members of parliament from Hungary, Lithuania and Ukraine; and many other distinguished European and American experts and senior officials. In 2016 the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg participated in the conference. In 2019, Cindy McCain, Chair of McCain Institute Board of Directors, participated and opened the conference with a speech commemorating legacy of John McCain.