Though this may be too simplistic,  I can sum up my experience at YATA after the second day in one word: amazing. Despite the fact that the conference is being conducted in English, which is overwhelmingly the most common language spoken at the conference (a very big relief),  there is a multitude of cultural diversity here, as the delegates from ATA and YATA hail from all over the world. While meeting people from all over the world is enjoyable on a personal level, the greatest benefit comes from hearing issues in international relations discussed from what is undoubtedly an international perspective. Often, information about these topics in the United States is limited by the fact that we only have one view on the issue at hand, and hearing participants from 30-odd countries fiercely discuss a topic such as NATO expansion has broadened my viewpoint tremendously.

This will probably be a shorter post, since the activities today were primarily aimed at completing legislative tasks, such as electing new leadership in YATA/ATA and defining  what direction the assemblies should take in the future. Though these activities were interesting, it was difficult to come in as an outsider and fully understand how YATA functions, but I quickly caught on to the process. After these initial meetings, we moved halls into a room set up for a video conference with students from Moscow State University regarding Russian membership in NATO. Though chock full of technical difficulties, mainly the microphone cutting out mid-speech (which ended up being very funny, since the mic would inadvertently cut out for minutes at a time, leaving the Moscow participant trying to mime out his or her points), the presentation was interesting and informal enough that it was very comfortable to speak.

Following this presentation, we headed across the street to the President Hotel to hear a panel of speakers give opening remarks to the conference, including a video message from the Ukranian President, who welcomed us into his country. The President of ATA, Dr. Karl Lamers, also gave a particularly impassioned speech, optimistically encouraging members of the conference to continue to actively pursue causes which promote the values set out by NATO- namely democracy, freedom, and rule of law.

After this speech, the entire delegation of YATA/ATA were invited to the residence of the United States Ambassador to Ukraine for a very nice reception. The sheer number of people in the house was staggering, and everyone I spoke to was very welcoming and friendly, despite the fact that I was obviously much less accomplished, poorly dressed (for the record, poorly is a relative term in this context) American student, and people took a genuine interest in what I had to say or wanted to discuss.

To bring things back full circle, all in all it was an amazing day. According to several participants who have taken part in past conferences, however, tomorrow the conference “truly begins,” as the whole day is panel discussions of various issues, so I can only imagine what I will come away with tomorrow. In total, it ends up being five hours of discussion, and I’m sure the combination of my interest in the issues at hand and the Ukrainian propensity to down copious amounts of espresso will prove to be enough to handle the task.