Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2026 Schedule

Tuesday, May 12
Time Sessions
08:00 - 09:00
Registration and Welcome Coffee
  • Registration and welcome coffee [Foyer]
09:00 - 09:05
Introduction
  • Welcome and Opening [Main Stage]
    • Gordon Repinski (Moderator) – Executive Editor, Politico Germany
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
09:05 - 09:15
Welcome
  • Welcome to Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2026 [Main Stage]
    • Anders Fogh Rasmussen – Founder and Chairman of The Alliance of Democracies Foundation
09:15 - 09:30
Keynote
  • Greenland and World Order [Main Stage]
    • Jens-Frederik Nielsen – Prime Minister of Greenland
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
09:30 - 09:50
Keynote
  • Denmark in the New World Order [Main Stage]
    • Anders Fogh Rasmussen – Founder and Chairman of The Alliance of Democracies Foundation
    • Mette Frederiksen – Acting Prime Minister of Denmark
    • Silvana Koch-Mehrin – President and Founder of Women Political Leaders
09:50 - 10:00
Presentation
  • State of Democracy in Numbers - Democracy Perception Index 2026 Launch [Main Stage]
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
    • Nico Jaspers – CEO, Nira Data
10:00 - 10:15
Keynote
  • Ukraine's Defence
    • Oleksandr Kamyshin (Virtual) – Presidential Advisor on Strategic Issues, Ukraine
    • Gordon Repinski (Moderator) – Executive Editor, Politico Germany
10:15 - 10:20
Book launch
  • "What is Democracy" by Hal Koch translated in Ukrainian [Main Stage]
    • Eva Kjer Hansen
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
    • Jonas Parello-Plesner – Executive Director, Alliance of Democracies Foundation
    • Julia Tymoshenko – Head of Ukraïner Media and Publishing 
    • Mathias Parsbæk Skibdal – Executive Director of the Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy
10:20 - 10:55
Coffee Break
10:55 - 11:05
Interview
  • Our Time
    • Francis Fukuyama (Pre-record) – American Political Scientist
11:05 - 11:35
Panel discussion
  • Democratic Alliances and a ‘D7’ to Lead the Free World [Main Stage]
    • Anders Fogh Rasmussen – Founder and Chairman of The Alliance of Democracies Foundation
    • Chrystia Freeland – Former Deputy Prime Minister of Finance of Canada
    • Taro Kono (Virtual) – Former Foreign, Defense and Digital Minister of Japan
    • Gordon Repinski (Moderator) – Executive Editor, Politico Germany
11:35 - 11:45
Interview
  • Rare Earths and Democratic Supply Lines [Main Stage]
    • Erik Eschen – Chief Executive Officer of VAC Group
    • Jonas Parello-Plesner – Executive Director, Alliance of Democracies Foundation
11:45 - 11:55
Panel discussion
  • Innovation for Liberty's Frontline [Main Stage]
    • Anders Fogh Rasmussen – Founder and Chairman of The Alliance of Democracies Foundation
    • Benjamin Tallis – Senior Government Affairs Manager at Helsing AI
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
11:55 - 12:15
Panel discussion
  • Drone Defence in Ukraine and Beyond [Main Stage]
    • Anders Fogh Rasmussen – Founder and Chairman of The Alliance of Democracies Foundation
    • Karl Rosander – CEO & Co-Founder, Nordic Air Defence
    • Dan D. S. Hermansen – Chief Executive Officer at MyDefence
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
12:15 - 13:30
Networking Lunch
  • Networking lunch [Foyer]
12:30 - 13:30
Side Event
  • Authoritarianism and Democracy in Practice
    • Erica Frantz – Research Fellow, Michigan State University
    • Ivan Vejvoda (Moderator) – Kettering Global Fellow, Austrian Institute for International Affairs in Vienna
    • Ruth Ben-Ghiat – Kettering Senior Fellow
  • In the Nordics We Trust: Trust as a Regional Asset and Recipe for Resilience and Unity
    • Anna Rennéus Guthrie (Moderator) – Director Stockholm Free World Forum
    • Hans Wallmark – Ambassador of Sweden to Denmark.
    • Jeanette Serritzlev – Military Analyst at the Royal Danish Defence Academy
    • Odd Eiken – Business Advisor and Chair of Nordic Boards
    • Tove Lifvendahl – Political Editor-in-Chief at Svenska Dagbladet
12:30 - 13:45
Side Event
  • AI, Power & Democracy: Who Sets the Rules in a New World (Dis)Order?
    • Chrystia Freeland – Former Deputy Prime Minister of Finance of Canada
    • Nanna-Louise Linde – Vice President of European Government Affairs, Microsoft
    • Cecilie Bonefeld-Dahl
    • Marie Bjerre – Acting Minister for European Affairs of Denmark and Member of the Folketing
    • Silvana Koch-Mehrin – President and Founder of Women Political Leaders
    • Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica – Deputy Speaker of the Saeima of Latvia; WPL Ambassador
13:30 - 13:40
Keynote
  • Defending Taiwan's Democracy [Main Stage]
    • Anders Fogh Rasmussen – Founder and Chairman of The Alliance of Democracies Foundation
    • Lai Ching-Te (Virtual) – President of Taiwan
13:40 - 14:05
Panel discussion
  • Overthrowing Dictatorships [Main Stage]
    • Bobi Wine (Virtual) – Ugandan Activist, Politician and Singer
    • Carolina Barrero – President and Executive Director of Ciudadanía y Libertad
    • Leopoldo Lopez – National Coordinator of Voluntad Popular for Freedom Activist and Co-founder of the World Liberty Congress
    • Damon Wilson (Moderator) – President and Chief Executive Officer, National Endowment for Democracy
    • Masih Alinejad – Iranian-American Journalist, Political Activist
14:05 - 14:25
Panel discussion
  • The Future of Democracy Support [Main Stage]
    • Antje Schippmann – Co-founder and Managing Director of the Axel Springer Freedom Foundation
    • Jamie Fly – CEO of Freedom House
    • Jonas Parello-Plesner – Executive Director, Alliance of Democracies Foundation
    • Sharon L. Davies – President and CEO of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation
    • Yeh-Chung Lu – Vice President, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy
14:25 - 14:40
Keynote discussion
  • Business for Liberty and Democracy [Main Stage]
    • John Caudwell – British Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
    • Anne McElvoy (Moderator) – Executive Editor, Head of Audio, Politico
14:40 - 14:55
Fireside chat
  • Restoring Our Digital Freedom [Main Stage]
    • Anne McElvoy (Moderator) – Executive Editor, Head of Audio, Politico
    • Tomicah Tillemann – President of Project Liberty
14:55 - 15:10
Fireside chat
  • Multinational Collaboration in the Context of Advanced AI [Main Stage]
    • Yoshua Bengio – Prof at Université de Montréal and President of LawZero
    • Anne McElvoy (Moderator) – Executive Editor, Head of Audio, Politico
15:10 - 15:30
Panel discussion
  • Trusted Tech [Main Stage]
    • Nanna-Louise Linde – Vice President of European Government Affairs, Microsoft
    • Cecilie Bonefeld-Dahl
    • Ivan Rejon – Director Government, Policy Advocacy and Strategy, Ericsson
    • Gordon McKee – Gordon McKee MP
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
15:30 - 16:00
Coffee break
  • Coffee break [Foyer]
15:30 - 16:30
Side Event
  • Wheels in Motion: Where is the Trans-Atlantic Relationship Heading?
    • John Bolton – 26th United States National Security Advisor
    • Pierre Collingnon (Moderator) – Editor in Chief, Berlingske
    • Tobias Billström – Head of Government Strategy Affairs at Nordic Air Defence and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden
  • Who is Building the AI We Want?
    • Yoshua Bengio – Prof at Université de Montréal and President of LawZero
    • Tomicah Tillemann – President of Project Liberty
16:00 - 16:50
Democracy Tech Pitch Competition
  • Democracy Tech Pitch Competition [Main Stage]
    • Anna Vyshniakova – Head of LingvaLexa
    • Dea Bakashvili – Founder of ETAN
    • George Lubaretsi – Founder of FOI Security
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
    • Lucian Boaghe – CEO & Co-Founder of Deepguard
    • Vahan Martirosyan – Co-Founder of COPA
    • Viktor Yakymovych – CEO of Sec-Ta
16:50 - 17:00
Spotlight session
  • Digital Sovereignty: Closing the Democratic Mind? [Main Stage]
    • Jacob Mchangama – Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
17:00 - 17:20
Keynote discussion
  • U.S. Global Leadership on Democracy [Main Stage]
    • John Bolton – 26th United States National Security Advisor
    • Gordon Repinski (Moderator) – Executive Editor, Politico Germany
17:20 - 17:32
Interview
  • Ukraine at the Frontline [Main Stage]
    • Mariana Shafro – Ukrainian photographer, filmmaker, and producer.
    • Evgeniy Matvienko – Ukrainian filmmaker
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
    • Olena Sontseslava
17:32 - 17:52
Film screening
  • VARTA Project: Documentary Novel “SHE” [Main Stage]
17:52 - 18:00
Closing remarks
  • Closing remarks [Main Stage]
    • Anders Fogh Rasmussen – Founder and Chairman of The Alliance of Democracies Foundation
    • Gordon Repinski (Moderator) – Executive Editor, Politico Germany
    • Jeanne Meserve (Host and Moderator) – Host of the NatSec Tech podcast and former anchor and correspondent for CNN and ABC News
18:00 - 19:15
Closing reception
  • Closing reception [Foyer]
18:20 - 19:00
Democracy Tech Reception
  • Democracy Tech Reception (Invite only)