His co- discussants were Lauri Luht, the Head of National Situation Centre at the Estonian Office of Government (thus representing the information pillar of state power), Commodore Hans Christian Helseth of the Royal Norwegian Navy, who spoke on behalf of military element, and finally the rector of the Estonian Business School Meelis Kitsing, representing the economic pillar of power.

The panellists´ task was to explain to the attendees of the course how their particular element of power contributes to national security and defence.

Ambassador Král explained that from a diplomatic point of view, national security and defence has to be viewed more broadly than in traditional military sense (conventional territorial defence) and can be conceived as the protection and projection of national interests. He explained that diplomacy as a method works mainly with positive aspects of interstate relations, searches for issues that unite rather than divide, and places emphasis on preventing conflict but often also has to manage their outcome. As other important functions of diplomacy, he highlighted rule-making between states and other actors of international relations (e.g. negotiation of international treaties) but also building alliances and partnerships that help to advance national interests. However, he also explained that in some cases there are limits as to what diplomacy can do, and in such cases it needs to be backed up by the other elements of power – military, economy and information.

After the introduction, a discussion and exchange with the course attendants ensued, where discussants touched not only on the interplay between the four elements of state power but touched also on many issues of contemporary international relations, such as the future of rules-based global order, NATO, Afghanistan, relations with Russia and China and others.