On January 17, Perry Center professors Celina Realuyo and Boris Saavedra participated in a bilateral transnational threats seminar hosted by the Dominican Republic’s Graduate School for Superior Strategic Studies (EGAEE) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, titled “Countering Transnational and Transregional Threat Networks in the Americas.” EGAEE is an institution of higher education under the Dominican Ministry of Defense which educates officers and civilians in the areas of security and national defense. The event was part of an academic exchange between the two institutions and focused on cybersecurity and the nexus between terrorism and organized crime.

Perry Center alumnus and EGAEE Deputy Director of Academics Justo del Orbe and Perry Center Dean of Academic Affairs Scott Tollefson delivered opening remarks. Professor Celina Realuyo followed with the first presentation of the day “The Convergence of Terrorism and Organized Crime,” which detailed the challenges of an increasingly unstable world where terrorists, guerrilla fighters and criminal thugs work together to achieve mutually beneficial objectives, as well as potential measures to counter these threats. After a question and answer session, Professor Boris Saavedra closed the seminar with a presentation on “Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies.” His presentation discussed the difficulty society has keeping pace with continually evolving technologies and the need for government, business and civil society actors to work together to develop new ways of managing what he referred to as “one of the most important governance challenges of today.”

The forum was attended by more than 100 students, professors and officials from EGAEE and provided participants with an opportunity to dialogue and gather important insights on these complex threats which affect the Dominican Republic and the region