The international system, international organizations, and the rule and values-based world order have survived in spite of historical earthquakes and changes. In addition to the threat to Ukraine and Ukrainian sovereignty, Russia’s war in Ukraine is also a war against the rules-based world order. We are also witnessing in this period that democracy is on the decline worldwide. Instead, hybrid regimes or purely authoritarian states emerge. We see a world racing ahead in the form of technological innovation and AI, new forms of information and communication, and at the same time a humanity deeply interconnected, experienced in a pandemic that did not leave a single country untouched, which also displayed global inequality. Lastly, climate change has the ability to change everything, if we as humanity don’t understand the potential impact on our societies and act with due diligence.

Addressing these challenges requires leadership, creative and strong diplomacy, well-functioning institutions and collective action to adapt as circumstances change and challenges arise.

This year the Aspen Ministers Forum will be held in Copenhagen from 7-9 October, 2023. The Aspen Ministers Forum is a nonpartisan initiative of former Foreign Ministers from around the world established by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2003 to strengthen diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Europe. Since then it has established itself as a leading global platform for nonpartisan dialogue aimed at addressing and developing concrete policy recommendations for many of the international community’s greatest challenges.

As part of this year’s forum, The Danish Foreign Policy Society has been given the opportunity to host three prominent participants at this year’s AMF to discuss issues of international leadership on some of the global challenges facing the world today.

Claudia Ruiz Massieu currently serves as Senator in the Mexican Senate, where she leads the Special Committee to Implement the USMCA. Prior to that, she led the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) as National Chair. At the federal level, she has served in Congress – in the Chamber of Deputies – on two occasions, and as Minister of Tourism and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Minister Ruiz Massieu is a lawyer and holds a master’s degree in Comparative Public Policies and a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law.

Margot Wallström served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden from 2014-2019 in which she introduced the feminist foreign policy and led Sweden ‘efforts at the UN Security Council. She was elected to the Swedish parliament in 1979 before serving as Minister for Youth, Women and Consumer Affairs from 1988 to 1991, Minister of Culture from 1994 to 1996, and Minister of Social Affairs from 1996 to 1998. From 1999 to 2004, Ms. Wallström served as the European Commissioner for the Environment and then as first Vice President of the European Commission from 2004 to 2010. In 2010, the Secretary-General of the United Nations appointed her the first Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict until 2012.

Dr. Kang Kyung-wha served as the first female Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea from June 2017 to February 2021. During her ministerial tenure, Dr. Kang endeavored to garner global support for the RoK’s initiative to engage with North Korea to bring about lasting peace and complete denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, while deepening the country’s diplomatic relations with further regions and countries. She also actively participated in various multilateral discussions on human rights, nonproliferation, peacekeeping, development cooperation, and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic response. She is a Distinguished Professor at the Institute for Global Engagement and Empowerment at Yonsei University. She is also currently on the Board of Trustees for the Kofi Annan Foundation’s International Crisis Group Board. In January 2007, she joined the UN following her appointment to the post of Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, and in April 2013, she was appointed to Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

The Chairman of the Danish Foreign Policy Society and former state secretary Ulrik Federspiel will provide opening remarks. The event will be moderated by the director of the Danish Foreign Policy Society Charlotte Flindt Pedersen.