Yalta European Strategy: From Bono to Pinchuk to Zakaria to Spaceships

One thing’s for sure, Ukrainian magnate Viktor Pinchuk never fails to disappoint.  Hosted once again in the grand Kyiv Arsenal Museum, this year’s Yalta European Strategy (or YES) meeting featured the usual defense hawks and conservative commentators (for a rundown of last year’s YES conference, featuring my extensive commentary on the various political interests, click here).  On the other hand, YES 2018 also hosted a panoply of “futurologists” and even spaceships no less.  Indeed, the somewhat grandiose title of this year’s conference was “The Next Generation of Everything.”

At times, the conference focused on the future of technology and even the quest for immortality.  Pinchuk himself had purchased a piece of art shaped like a spaceship.  Inside, visitors were able to scan their brain waves.