Major General (Retired) Paul Hurmuz, Senior Associate Expert, was invited on behalf of the New Strategy Center to be a speaker for the DW Global Media Forum 2026, in Bonn (23-24 June 2026). He was part of the ‘Talking to each other’ Panel, organised by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). The other panelists were: Ms. Irina Nedeva, Senior Editor & Producer of the Bulgarian National Radio, Mr. Philip Volkmann-Schluck, Managing Editor for the WELT. The moderator was Mr. Christoph Plate, Director KAS Media Programme South East Europe.
For the past three years, KAS Media South East Europe has been organizing high-level, closed-door encounters between senior military experts with journalists from Germany and the countries around the Black Sea Region. These exchanges fostered trust and mutual understanding, encouraging everyone involved to reflect on and reassess their own potential biases. Particularly in countries in the Black Sea Region these conversations contributed to strengthening resilience against ongoing military and hybrid threats from Russia.