The 2024 Freedom Lecture at the Hudson Institute
Our featured speakers for this event were Czech Senator Miroslav Barta and Czech Army Colonel Otakar Foltyn, who focused their remarks on “The Future: On Energy, Change, Innovation and Democracy”.
The Czech and Slovak Freedom Lecture was established in 2000. Intended to commemorate the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the lecture is scheduled annually close to November 17. Conceived as a joint activity of the Czech and Slovak Embassies, together with American Friends of the Czech Republic and Friends of Slovakia, the choice of speaker and topic alternates each year between the Czech and Slovak groups. Please visit the Friends of Slovakia website for the recordings of the previous lectures.
To listen to a recording of the event, please click here.
About the speakers:
Senator Miroslav Bárta
Mr. Barta is a Professor of Egyptology at Charles University, Prague. He was elected to the Senate of the Czech Parliament in September 2024.
He is currently the only Czech member of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of several worldwide scientific organizations, including The Explorers' Club in New York and The American Research Centre in Egypt. He is the recipient of the highest Czech scientific award, the Czech Head.
Miroslav Barta has been working in Egypt since 1991, and in 2010 he became the director of the pyramid field excavations in Abusir. It is currently the largest interdisciplinary Czech scientific expedition working abroad. In addition to Egyptology, where he focuses, among other things, on the period of the pyramid builders, history, and archaeology of the 3rd millennium BC, he has long been involved in the comparative study of civilizations. He is the author of numerous books.
In recent years, he has been dealing with the state of the contemporary world and our Western civilization and formulated a theory of seven laws that helps to understand the dynamics of every civilization.
Colonel Otakar Foltýn
Mr. Foltýn is a Czech Army officer, lawyer and security expert. He is currently Deputy Chief of the Military Office of the President of the Czech Republic, and he also serves as the Coordinator of Strategic Communications at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. He mostly deals with unconventional warfare, hybrid conflicts, information operations, and international law.
From 2004 to 2016 he served as an officer of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, deployed in Kosovo and Afghanistan. From 2016 to 2022 he was the staff officer at the Directorate of Special Forces and later served as Chief of the Czech Military Police. In March 2023, Col Foltyn joined the Military Office of the Czech President following the election of President Petr Pavel.
In addition to his service in the Czech President's Office, he teaches as an external lecturer at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague, speaks in the media and has co-authored several books. As an expert in international law, he cooperates with the Czech Red Cross.