In his recent book, The Age of Unpeace, Mark Leonard, the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations asks, "What do Russian trolling, American blockades, Iranian Piracy, and Turkish blackmail have in common? His answer: "Each is a type of weapon evolved to exploit a weakness in our connected world.” 

Leonard will be a featured speaker at the 35th annual Camden Conference, Europe: Challenged at Home and Abroad, February 25-27, when he will address the high risks for all nations of living in a connected world.

Leonard writes, "In geopolitics, it is trade, finance, the movement of people, pandemics, climate change, and above all the Internet that are being weaponized. It is connectivity itself that gives people the opportunity to fight and the reasons to compete.”

The European Council on Foreign Relations, which Leonard co-founded in 2007, is the first pan-European think tank, according to Camden Conference, in a news release. Leonard hosts the weekly podcast “Mark Leonard's World in 30 Minutes” and writes a syndicated column on global affairs. Honored as a “Young Global Leader” at the World Economic Forum, Leonard helps governments, companies, and international organizations make sense of the geo-political trends of the twenty-first century. He is a regular speaker and prolific writer and commentator on global issues including the future of Europe, China’s internal politics, and the practice of diplomacy and business in a networked world. His essays have appeared in Foreign Affairs, the Financial Times, the New York Times, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, El Pais, Gazeta Wyborcza, Foreign Policy, the New Statesman, the Daily Telegraph, The Economist, Time, and Newsweek.

Leonard and nine other world experts will join moderator David Brancaccio, host of American Public Media's Marketplace Morning Report, live from wherever they are living or working around the globe as the 2022 Camden Conference once again pivots to a virtual, live-streaming format due to the realities of the global COVID pandemic. The live-streaming format allows audience interaction (Q&A) with the speakers, in keeping with the Camden Conference mission of fostering informed discourse on world issues.

The annual Camden Conference is considered one of the top foreign affairs conferences in the United States and has attracted large audiences from Maine and up to 25 other states.

Participants include an informed public as well as high school and college educators and students.

For more information on the 35th Anniversary Camden Conference: Europe: Challenged at Home and Abroad, February 25-27, 2022, and to register, please visit camdenconference.org.