Welcome! For the next few days, I will be blogging about my experiences in Kiev, where I will be attending the 55th General Assembly of the Atlantic Treaty Association. Within the Atlantic Treaty Association, there is a component called the Youth Atlantic Treaty Association (YATA), a group of students, professors, and other assorted young people gatherd to discuss many international relations issues. I am one of fifteen United States citizens at the conference, but other participants hail from all parts of the globe, and represent countries that are both members and non-members of NATO.

To begin, I’d have to start with arriving in Kiev. Kiev’s airport, Borispol, is located on the outskirts of the city, and is comparable in size to the Des Moines International Airport despite the fact the population of Kiev hovers around 3-4 million people, making it much larger than Des Moines. That being said, the similarity in size may be the only thing Des Moines International Airport and Borispol Airport have in common. Upon getting off the plane, my nostrils were “greeted” with the smell of burning plastic and smog, and I was greeted personally by a welcome party of ardent, non-English-speaking taxi drivers that engulfed me as soon as I left the arrival gate. After turning down 32 different drivers for rides to the city, I met my contact from the ATA and boarded a shuttle to the Hotel Rus, where all the delegates are going to be housed for the conference.

After recounting my story to a couple of the Ukranian volunteers with the conference, they said this was all but rare. “If the airport was what Kiev was really like, there would be nobody who would visit.” They were definitely correct. Upon arriving in the hotel, which is located in the heart of downtown Kiev, I couldn’t have been happier. The city is amazingly pretty and very developed. There are rows after rows of shops and flats in the commercial district, and the view from my window allowed me to take it all in. Complementing this area is the incredibly ornate architecture, wide array of historical sites (churches, government buildings, etc.), and relatively low prices, all of which make Kiev a sight to behold.

After exploring the city, the conference began this afternoon with introductory remarks by the YATA President Guiseppe Belardetti, a researcher with the Italian Atlantic Committee, who emphasized the importance of youth involvement in international affairs and explained the program. Following the opening remarks, the first session began, which was entitled “Atlanticism and New Media: Communication Challenges in the XXI Century.” The panel was split into two parts; the first was focused on a variety of topics related to journalism’s relation to NATO and other international organizations, while the second narrowed the focus solely to the impact of communication in the politics of Afghanistan and Central Asia.

During the first panel, the speakers commented on an incredibly wide variety of issues, from this the problems arising from Iran’s censorship of news reports during the riots this summer to the changing landscape of communication (especially in light of new social networking sites) to an assesment of the meaning of security in a cross-cultural context. One speaker in particular, a reporter named Sabina Castelfranco, was particularly interesting, as she had done reporting for both Al-Jazeera English and CBS, two news outlets that are polar opposites. The second panel was much more focused, and pertained specifically to communication in Afghanistan. The panel was primarily led by Mohammed Ismati, the Head of Outreach Countries Section of NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division (a very long title), who reflected on the two streams of communication in Afghanistan: intra-Afghani communication between local villages and the central government and between Afghanistan and the outside world.

Following the panels, we boarded a bus and had a dinner reception at European University in Kiev, a nice treat for everyone at the conference. It was definitely a long day, but it has been a very rewarding experience so far, and things are only looking up from here.