Eric Jansson, journalist who served for nine years in eastern Europe for the Financial Times, dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur and other news organizations. - International Leaders Summit

The International Leaders Summit event offered brainstorming and networking opportunities for individuals and institutions who share the aim of advancing the cause of liberty. The overarching message, as urged by proven reformers such as Estonia’s Prime Minister Mart Laar and New Zealand’s Cabinet Minister Maurice McTigue and advocated by policymakers and analysts from the US and Europe, was that free market reforms are not merely possible. They are essential in an age when, although Communism is vanquished institutionally, the Marxist instincts and coercive powers of “big government” remain immense.