{"id":1047,"date":"2019-09-11T11:23:16","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T15:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?p=1047"},"modified":"2019-09-11T11:23:16","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T15:23:16","slug":"to-an-ally-and-friend-from-my-country-and-family-to-yours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/2019\/09\/11\/to-an-ally-and-friend-from-my-country-and-family-to-yours\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTo an ally and friend, from my country and family to yours\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Joe Margevicius<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had been told to arrive early to the Lithuanian Ministry\nof Defense because I would need to go through a security screening, and so I\ndid. Upon arriving I called my contact and bided my time in the lobby,\nreceiving strange glances from personnel passing by. My contact arrived and\nimmediately approached with a smile and outstretched hand \u2013 a promising sign.\nWe exchanged pleasantries but then wasted no time getting me through the\nsecurity screening, for there were others awaiting my arrival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Miami student enrolled into the\nRussian language program at Tallinn University, I came to Vilnius, Lithuania,\nto meet with my contact.  After a long trip and two hours of\nsleep I arrived with the idea that I would meet my contact, be given the\nstandard tour, and then raid a giftshop and take some photos.  But with a guest security pass strung around\nmy neck, I was guided swiftly through the Defense Ministry\u2019s corridors to an\nupstairs office area. Upon entering I was greeted by a military officer who sat\nme down in front of a wall of screens and asked if I was ready. My initial\nresponse was one of confusion and all I could muster was a quiet \u201cFor?\u201d. What\nfollowed was a military intelligence briefing on information warfare. I was\nstunned to be given this briefing but was immediately ensconced in it. I was\ntold about cyber security, fake news, political subversion, and propaganda. The\nmeeting was eye-opening to the scale and complexity of the ongoing operations\nbetween Lithuania and her adversaries. The challenges being faced are economic,\npolitical, and possibly most importantly social. The deluge of misinformation\nand the battle for public trust is a struggle of influence that will shape all\noperations and decisions for the foreseeable future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting concluded and I was\ntold that a second, higher-up meeting might be imminent, so I was instructed\nnot to go far. No sooner had I found a nearby caf\u00e9 and ordered some coffee did\nmy phone begin to ring.  My contact told\nme to \u201crun not walk but run back here.\u201d I literally sprinted back to the Defense\nMinistry and was readmitted through the same security screening. I was taken to\nanother office where I sat and waited. Some time passed and then a man entered\nthe office and was introduced as the Vice Minister of Defense of the Republic\nof Lithuania. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vice Minister was extremely\ncordial and immediately invited me into his office. The meeting lasted about an\nhour and upon completion I intensely thanked the vice minister and my contact\nfor their time and letting me share this experience. My contact escorted me\nback to the main lobby where we departed for the day, but not before giving me\na custom-made itinerary of possible attractions to see throughout Vilnius. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent the remaining two days in\nVilnius doing just that. I toured some sights I had previously visited such as\nIndependence Square and the Gates of\nDawn. <\/em>But more than that, my contact had provided me a slew of new sites and\nattractions to see across the city. A photography exhibition at the main city\npost office showcased fan mailed images depicting Lithuanian military themes\nand the 100-year anniversary of Lithuanian nationhood post World War One. I\nvisited the National Art Gallery housing a series of works depicting life in\nLithuania under Soviet rule. The focus was on the everyday life of people\nexperiencing everything from the weather to political uprising. I soared above\nmedieval Vilnius in a virtual reality tour at the National History Museum and\nstood in on mass and a grand procession at the National Cathedral which\nhappened to be celebrating the holiday Epiphany\n<\/em>or Three Kings Day<\/em>. I chose to\ntry Lithuanian cuisine such as cepelinai and saltibarsciai while consistently\ndisappointing local people with my attempts at speaking Lithuanian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt very\nprivileged to have this experience as part of my undergraduate involvement in\nthe Lithuania Program at the Havighurst Center at Miami University led by\nprofessor Neringa Klumbyt\u0117. I got a deeper sense of Lithuanian identity and\nmeaning. As a citizen from an allied nation, I saw a snapshot of the\nprofessional operations that allied governments partake in to strengthen mutual\ntrust, security, and cooperation. As a Lithuanian-American, visiting the land\nof his namesake for the second time, I felt connected to people in a land,\nwhose heritage I share. These sentiments culminated on my final night in\nVilnius. I was with my contact having dinner and drinks at a local bar. Before\nleaving I reached into my backpack and presented my contact with a folded\nAmerican flag. I explained how to hold and display the flag and then passed it\nceremonially to him. \u201cTo an ally and friend, from my country and family to\nyours,\u201d I said. The importance of such connections, both personal and\nprofessional cannot be understated, and the experiences created I will treasure\nin my memory.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Several months after, Joe Margevicius (first on the right) with\nLinas Linkevi\u010dius, the Lithuanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Neringa\nKlumbyt\u0117 and Matthew Stanionis, the President of Lithuania Club@MU. April 5,\n2019, Ohio State University, Columbus. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joe Margevicius I had been told to arrive early to the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense because I would need to go through a security screening, and so I did. Upon arriving I called my contact and bided my time … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":1050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}