It is with great pleasure that we now present this year’s castle panel during the Kastelholm Talks 2025: Minna Kukkonen-Karlander, Anders Lidén and Annika Söder.
Minna Kukkonen-Karlander is Senior Manager at Crisis Management Initiative’s (CMI) Asia Programme since August 2021, focusing on North East and South East Asia. Prior to that, she worked as a manager and advisor in several of CMI’s mediation and conflict resolution activities in sub-Saharan Africa and Indonesia. Between 2011 and 2018, she worked as an advisor to President Ahtisaari, supporting him in his global initiatives and commitments related to conflict resolution, peacebuilding and sustainable development. She has over ten years of experience in peace mediation and conflict resolution, policy advice and practical implementation. Ms Kukkonen-Karlander holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from Uppsala University specialising in International Law.
Anders Lidén holds a PhD in political science. He was Sweden’s UN Ambassador in New York from 2004-10. He has also served as Ambassador to Israel, Zimbabwe and Finland with side accreditations in Cyprus, Malawi and Mauritius, and as Counsellor for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Stockholm. Mr Lidén is the author of two books on diplomacy: Diplomati och uppriktiga samtal 2017 and Diplomati i Praktiken 2021, both published by Carlssons bokförlag. Since retiring, Mr Lidén has been an election observer for the OSCE in a number of countries, including Russia and Ukraine. He has also participated in diplomatic training in Ramallah and Mogadishu. Mr Lidén has been a board member of the Åland Islands Peace Institute since 2018.
Annika Söder is a Swedish diplomat and politician, and Senior Advisor to the European Institute of Peace, on issues related to the Middle East region. She was Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sweden, from 2014 to 2019, and State Secretary for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2006. In 2021, she served as OSCE Special Representative in the South Caucasus and in the Geneva International Discussions on the Georgia conflict. Until 2023, she was a member of the Swedish Women Mediators Network, has been Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and Deputy Director-General of the UN’s agricultural organisation, FAO, with responsibility for external relations, partnerships and UN cooperation. In the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she has been Head of Press and Spokesperson, Head of the Security Policy Department and Advisor to Ministers of State and Foreign Affairs.
On Thursday 27 March, the Åland Islands Peace Institute will organise for the eleventh time the ‘Kastelholm Talks on Peace’ in Åland. The Kastelholm Talks are recurring peace-themed dialogues, held under the patronage of former President of Finland Tarja Halonen, who will be present this year.
The Kastelholm Talks consist of two parts. First, at 14:15 at Kastelholm Castle, a panel will discuss this year’s theme, chaired by Katja Creutz, Programme Director for Global Security at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and Chair of the Research Council of the Peace Institute. The discussion will be held in English and broadcast live.
The second part is a roundtable discussion, which this year will be held in the Mariehamn City Library in co-operation with the Mariehamn Literature Days. The roundtable will develop the dialogue that has been taking place at the castle and link it to a Nordic and local perspective. The dialogue will be held in Swedish and the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions to the panel. Isabel Bramsen, mediator and associate professor at Lund University, will begin with a summary and reflections from the castle. The moderator Kjell- Åke Nordqvist will then take over. He is a professor of international relations at Enskilda Högskolan Stockholm, specialising in peacebuilding and human rights, and secretary of the Peace Institute’s Research Council.
The Kastelholm Talks are open to everyone to take part in – both on site and online. Registration opens on 3 of March on our website www.peace.ax.
