PRAGUE — While the war in Ukraine, following Russia’s 2022 invasion, rages on, a group of experts and thought leaders from around the world — including Georgia Tech and Ukraine — convened here recently to discuss and imagine the framework of rebuilding the country when the fighting ends.
The guest speakers were attendees of the GLOBSEC Forum 2025, a global think tank focused on strengthening security, prosperity, and sustainability across Europe and the world.
Since its founding in 2005, the GLOBSEC Forum has become one of the leading strategic platforms in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as of the top conferences worldwide.
The 2025 conference, held June 12-14, also featured sessions on wide-ranging global issues from ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and East Asia, energy security, technology development, and rising economies in the countries that comprise the Global South.
One of the panel sessions on Ukraine, “Peace Engineering: Collaborative Solutions for Repatriation in Post-Conflict Ukraine,” follows the country’s creation of the Ministry of National Unity in December of 2024, to encourage the return of citizens who fled the country for post-war recovery.
The panelists included Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove (Ret.), former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO and now a distinguished professor of the practice in Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts; and David Bridges, vice president of Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute.
Other expert thought leaders who addressed the notion of Ukraine’s post-war rebuilding included Peter Devine, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics at Boston College; Joseph Hughes, Ph.D., a distinguished university professor at Drexel University (former Karen and John Huff School Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Howard T. Tellepsen Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and professor of material science and engineering at Georgia Tech).
The panel also included Oleksandr Kava, the Ukrainian deputy minister of finance; and Iullia Osmolovska, director of GLOBSEC’s Kyiv office, chair of the Transatlantic Dialogue Center, and executive director of the Eastern Europe Security Institute Ukraine.
Additionally, Robert Thomas, professor of the practice and director of leadership education at Tech’s Scheller College of Business, had the foresight which led to this event.
“Russian aggression against Ukraine has led to the deadliest war in Europe since World War II,” said Bridges, who is also a Fulbright Specialist for the U.S. State Department and has been working on projects with local partners in the Slovak Republic in that role.
“We know post-war recovery will be a huge undertaking, and as our panel explored, Ukraine faces not just the challenges of physically rebuilding.” he said. “At the center of the recovery will be the Ukrainian people. Structuring an approach that prioritizes, safety, resiliency, and sustainability for long-term socio-economic growth and prosperity is crucial.”
Georgia Tech, through several of its units, including the Enterprise Innovation Institute, has long partnered with other organizations and universities from around the world looking for assistance in economic capacity-building efforts.
“The work we’ve done with our partners in different countries is built on a foundation of capacity building through supporting universities’ commercialization and valorization efforts; expanding co-created industry-led workforce development programs; and strengthening supply chain initiatives,” Bridges said.
The Enterprise Innovation Institute, through its Enterprise Innovation Institute Global program, has worked to support more than 450 capacity-building efforts in 35 countries worldwide, including Colombia, South Africa, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, and India.
Connecting globally and championing innovation are two of Georgia Tech’s focus areas,” Bridges said. “The work Georgia Tech is doing in these areas is designed to bring innovation not just in infrastructure, housing, and education, but it’s innovating to have meaningful impact on people’s lives that allows them to thrive.”