Democratization v. Reconciliation: Post-Nationalist Memories of the Battle of Kosovo
Wednesday, 28 April 2010, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Anna Di Lellio.
Policies attempting reconciliation in societies where competing national historical memories have been part of the conflict oscillate between imposing amnesia and negotiating history. Both projects, based on engineering memories while at the same time denying agency to the parties involved, are intellectually problematic; politically, they produce at best mixed results. A better option would be to reframe reconciliation as a democracy project. This includes breaking the monopoly that competing parties seek on national memory, not by trying to put forth a “true” history, or forge a “mediated” history, but by expanding history to memories. As an illustration of such project, I propose to take the case of Kosovo, where the medieval battle of 1389 that has become a national foundational myth for Serbs, and is widely known as such, also feeds a post-war pan-Albanian narrative. A post-nationalist Kosovo will have to face, rather than deny this contrast, by considering all the elements that make up the historical memories of this event -- facts, rumors, distortions, and sentiments, as they are experienced, read, or just heard.
Dr. Di Lellio is the author of The Battle of Kosovo 1389. An Albanian Epic (I.B. Tauris 2009) and the editor of The Case for Kosova. A Passage to Independence (Anthem Press 2006). She is a commentator and policy analyst on post-war Kosovo and lectures at the Graduate Program in International Affairs (GPIA) at The New School in New York and the Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Communication (KIJAC) in Prishtina. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Columbia University and a Masters in Public Policy from New York University.
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Diplomacy: New Challenges and Opportunities
Tuesday, 20 April 2010, 6:00pm–8:00pm
1512 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute, the European Institute, the East Central European Center, and the Program in Hellenic Studies for a talk by H.E. Spyros Kouvelis, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Hellenic Republic
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The 15th Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of
Nationalities (ASN)
Thursday, 15 April 2010–Saturday, 17 April 2010
Nations and States: On the Map and in the Mind
120+ PANELS on the Balkans, Central Europe and the Baltics, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Turkey, Afghanistan, China, and Nationalism Studies
SPECIAL SECTIONS on History, Politics, Memory Interpretive and Cognitive Approaches in Ethnography, and The Resurgence of Russia: Domestic and Foreign Policy Implications
THEMATIC Panels on Islam and Politics, Genocide and Mass Killing, Ethnic Violence, Religion, Language Politics, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Autonomy, Gender and Identity, EU Integration, NATO Expansion, Diaspora and Transnational Networks, International Law and Tribunals, Political Economy and the Nation, History and Nation Building, and many more…
SCREENINGS of New Documentaries
SPECIAL ROUNDTABLES on New Books
AWARDS for Best Doctoral Student Papers
Link to website
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The Paris Peace Conference of 1919-1920 and its Legacy: A Yugoslav Perspective
Friday, 09 April 2010, 6:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Dejan Djokic, Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary History Director, Centre for the Study of the Balkans Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Co-sponsored by the Njegoš Endowment for Serbian Language & Culture at Columbia University.
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Kosovo’s Difficult Future: Challenges Ahead
Tuesday, 06 April 2010, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Ilir Deda, Executive Director, Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED).
Kosovo has been recognized by 65 states, which hinders the country’s full-fledged integration into important international and regional institutions. Presently, many eyes are set on the International Court of Justice, which is to present its advisory opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence this summer. Serbia seems determined to use that opportunity to push for a new dialogue on Kosovo’s status, and has in the meantime strengthened parallel Belgrade-run institutions in northern Kosovo.
A recent plan prepared by the International Civilian Office, the institution overseeing Kosovo’s independence, aims at establishing domestic institutions of self-government in the North, which is opposed by the authorities in Belgrade. It also did not find the support of the European Union, which is split between the 22 EU states that have recognized Kosovo and the 5 that have not. Such divisions within the international community hinder the formulation of coherent policies towards Kosovo, and also affect the effectiveness of EULEX, the largest European Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) mission ever, established to support the rule of law in the country. At the same time, the popularity of EULEX and the Government of Kosovo is in constant decline. These aspects, which are also crucial to transatlantic burden sharing, will be subject of this lecture.
Ilir Deda is the Executive Director of the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED), a think-tank in Kosovo. Previously he worked for the UNDP headquarters in New York, the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), the International Crisis Group (ICG). He also served for a short time as a political advisor to the first Prime Minister of Kosovo. Ilir Deda has been the author of the Freedom House Nations in Transit Kosovo reports since 2007. He holds an MA in international affairs from The New School.
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Ex uno plures: Post-Yugoslav Cultural Spaces and Europe
Friday, 26 March 2010–Saturday, 27 March 2010
1501 International Affairs Building
The goal of this conference will be to explore post-Yugoslav cultural spaces by bringing together and facilitating dialogue between an unprecedented concentration of leading intellectuals, both from the former Yugoslav territories and from the West. Alongside opening questions of difference and commonality, the conference will also address issues such as how can the post-Yugoslav spaces—and even micro-spaces—respond to the challenges of globalization?
Participants: Davor Beganovic (University of Konstantz); Marijeta Bozovic (Columbia University); Wayles Brown (Cornell University); Gordana Crnkovic (University of Washington); Dejan Djokic (Goldsmiths College, London): Robert Donia (University of Michigan); Radmila Gorup (Columbia University); Aleksandar Jerkov (University of Belgrade); Pavle Levi (Stanford University); Toma Longinovic (University of Wisconsin, Madison); Zoran Milutinovic (University College, London); Milorad Pupovac (University of Zagreb); Shinasi Rama (New York University); Jasna Dragovic-Soso (Goldsmiths College, University of London); Gayatri Spivak (Columbia University); Maria Todorova (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign); Mitja Velikonja (University of Ljubljana); Dean Vuletic (Columbia University); Andrew Wachtel (Northwestern University); Andrea Zlatar (University of Zagreb).
For more information, please contact the conference organizer, Prof. Radmila Gorup at rjg26@columbia.edu
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Bosnia & Herzegovina: Escaping the Black Hole in Europe
Thursday, 25 March 2010, 12:15pm–2:00pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by:
Ambassador Robert L. Barry, Head of OSCE Mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1998-2001; US Ambassador to Indonesia, 1992-95; US Ambassador to Bulgaria, 1981-1984.
Ambassador John K. Menzies, Dean, Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University; US Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1996; Chief-of-Mission, US Office in Kosovo, 1999.
Despite massive international intervention over 15 years, Bosnia and Herzegovina may yet become a failed state. Its two entities, the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska are at swords point, with the Serbs and some Croats threatening defection.The economy continues to falter despite large scale foreign aid. Politicians show no concern for interests other than their own continued power and access to the benefits of corruption. The general population, in advance of a general election in 2010, remain apathetic and vulnerable to manipulation by nationalist demagogues.
How did this ambitious nation-building project, begun with the Dayton agreement in 1995 and continuing with an international protectorate still in force 15 years later, end up producing nothing but stalemate? Part of the problem lies with the Dayton agreement itself, which created an unworkable governing structure. Part of the problem lies with the election law, which rewards obstructionism. A major difficulty is the passivity of the population itself, content to rely on the international nannies to rescue them from their own excesses.
Describing this situation is a lot harder than devising remedies. Though US and European envoys have consulted, cajoled and threatened Bosnian political leaders and considered various new approaches, the US and the EU have yet to find a common language. Most EU members see the process of EU access ion as the locomotive which will drag Bosnia into Europe. Other Europeans resist EU expansion. The US would like to see the international protectorate continued and strengthened to prevent collapse of the state and force reform.
Amb. Robert Barry and Amb. John Menzies have devoted years to this dilemma. Ambassador John Menzies was deeply involved in Bosnian relief efforts during the 1992-1995 war and was US Ambassador to Sarajevo and later head of the US Institute of Peace working group on the Balkans. He is currently the Dean of the John C Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University. Ambassador Robert Barry was head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina 1998-2001. A 1962 graduate of what is now the Harriman Institute, he specialized in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during his 33 year career in the Foreign Service, which included appointments as Ambassador to Bulgaria and Indonesia.
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A Theory of Elitocide and Its Impact on Contemporary Understandings of the Crime of Genocide
Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institue for a talk by Dennis Gratz, Publicist, Sarajevo, BiH Visiting Scholar, Columbia University.
In the spring of 1992 British TV reporter Michael Nicholson named the fact of elimination of several tens of prominent and leading men of Bijeljina, a town at the northeast of Bosnia and Herzegovina, elitocide. Using this term, Nicholson sought to explain semantically the events that affected in an identical and coordinated manner the higher strata of the Bosniak and Croatian local communities in northern, western, and eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Namely, in the period of just a few months Serb paramilitary formations neutralized the influence of the local Bosniak and Croatian elites (by elimination, prosecution, imprisonment or rigid social and economic isolation) that had as a consequence the destruction and disintegration of the local civilian population.
In this presentation, Gratz will examine the circumstances under which local non-Serb elites in various parts of Bosnia were eliminated, the consequences for the pre-war communities, and present a theory of elitocide, defining its main characteristics and evaluating its importance for socio-legal science. Gratz will attempt to systematize elitocide as a sociological phenomenon and a certain type of criminal behavior within genocidal projects. Gratz will argue that such a scientific classification of elitocide makes proving and differentiating genocidal and potentially genocidal crimes less difficult, and also provides the basis for research of into the consequences of such activity. Finally, an examination of the relationship between elitocide (and other specific forms of organized mass crimes such as mass rape, culturocide, urbanocide etc.) and genocidal mass murder contributes to the contemporary understanding of the crime of genocide, its reformed reception and possible solutions for its future prevention. Gratz will present what he believes to be the most important components of the elitocide theory, and point out its importance to the study of genocide, mass murder and human rights abuses, especially in the world of modern, asymmetric warfare challenges.
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Serbia's Foreign Policy: Substance and Rhetoric
Thursday, 25 February 2010, 6:30pm–8:00pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Ljiljana Smajlovic, President of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia.
Two years after Kosovo independence, the majority of Serbs still reel with the loss of their ancestral province and continue to resent the role the United States played in the break-up of their country. At the same time, most continue to support becoming part of “the West” and joining the European Union, and are almost equally eager to strengthen their country's political, cultural, and even military ties to the United States.
As if such contradictory positions were not enough, Serbia’s leaders have recently come up with a foreign policy claiming no less than four pillars--European, American, Russian and Chinese. Starved for cash and desperate for new investment, Serbia is trying to prove this is a workable regional strategy, and not mere posturing.
No wonder some are calling Serbia's position schizophrenic, a mission impossible. Yet Serbia's foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, tops the country's list of most popular politicians, and is considered to be the only one able to bridge party lines and loyalties. Serbs seem captivated by the paradox of their country inching towards EU membership with US backing, while their top diplomat invests all his energy into thwarting US ambitions to secure UN membership for America's Kosovo Albanian protégés. Is there any substance to this policy, beyond playing to the nation's sense of self-importance? How did a foreign agenda born of domestic political necessity become the bedrock of an increasingly wobbly pro-Western coalition government in Belgrade?
Ljiljana Smajlovic, president of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia and former editor-in-chief of Serbia’s most-important daily newspaper Politika, will address these and other questions regarding the current trajectory of Serbia’s foreign policy.
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The Current Status of Freedom of the Press in Serbia
Thursday, 25 February 2010, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1510 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Ljiljana Smajlovic, President of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia.
In theory, and in the eyes of its Western backers, Serbia is a democracy with a free and viable press. In reality, and in the everyday lives of Serbian journalists, press freedom is constantly under attack, by both democratically elected politicians and greedy tycoons. The country is run by the most pro-Western government in its history, yet that government has recently adopted a Draconian press law that provides prosecutors and courts with a vast amount of discretion over the media’s ability to publish, including severe penalties and extraordinary fines for purely victimless administrative errors (such as failing to register with a central government agency before the first print run). Nearly ten years after Slobodan Milosevic's downfall and the triumph of democracy, Serbia saw fit to join a small and dwindling group of countries (such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation) which require registration as a predicate to publication. Other provisions of the law constitute violations of Serbian and international law.
Ljiljana Smajlovic is the President of the Journalists' Association of Serbia (JAS), which has taken the battle against the new press law to Serbia's Constitutional Court. Assisted pro bono by Covington & Burling, a Washington, DC-based law firm specializing in media law, JAS is protesting the provisions of the law that violate Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as Serbia's constitutional provisions that create an independent judiciary. The Journalists' Association of Serbia maintains that these provisions could lead to serious abuse, and have already led to self-censorship.
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Kosovo and the Neighborhood: Two Years after Independence
Wednesday, 17 February 2010, 12:00pm–2:00pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Shpetim Gashi and Alex Grigor’ev from the Project on Ethnic Relations, Princeton, NJ.
Two years ago, on the eve of Kosovo’s declaration of independence, many analysts predicted dire consequences that such a step would have for Kosovo and its Serb community, for the region, and for other countries with secessionist movements in Europe and elsewhere in the world. The domino effect theories, exodus of Kosovo Serbs or renewed violence dominated the headlines. Fortunately, these forecasts have not materialized. Two years later, Europe’s map remains the same, Kosovo Serbs stayed in Kosovo, and no interethnic violence took place.
What has been happening in Kosovo in the last two years? How is the new state functioning? What is happening to Kosovo’s Serb community? What are the prospects for Belgrade and Pristina to establish working contacts? How has Kosovo’s proclamation of independence affected politics and security in the Balkans? What would it take to make Kosovo’s European integration successful? Alex Grigor’ev, the Executive Director of the Project on Ethnic Relation (PER), and Shpetim Gashi, Senior Program Officer at PER, both with considerable experience in the Balkans, will examine these questions and provide possible answers based on their longtime work experience in conflict mediation in the Balkans. Mr. Gashi and Mr. Grigor’ev are graduates of the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University.
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Macedonia and EU Integration
Friday, 05 February 2010, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by H.E. Vasko Naumovski, Deputy Prime Minister of Macedonia.
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Update from Athens: Greece’s Responses to Today’s Challenges
Thursday, 04 February 2010, 12:00pm–1:00pm
1501 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by H.E. Dimitris Droutsas, Alternate Foreign Minister of Greece.
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The Return of the Albanian National Question
Tuesday, 02 February 2010, 12:00pm–2:00pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Shinasi Rama of New York University.
The Albanian national question is coming back. What is more interesting, it is coming back in very unexpected ways, against European designs and the expressed will of Albanian political elites.
While the Slavic groups of the former Yugoslavia are finding ways to interact with one-another, Albanians in the Balkans do not seem too keen to get involved in these processes, and the reason is simple: they do not share with their Slavic neighbors any of the core elements of identity such as language, ethnicity or religion. Memories of the recent conflict are very fresh. On the other hand, relations among Albanians in Kosova, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are becoming increasingly complex. All Albanian societies are gravitating more and more towards each-other. Their interactions are intensifying in so many different ways that it is impossible not to take notice.
While economic exchanges among these various Albanian communities are negligible, some of the most interesting developments are taking place at the level of the elites, political organization, infrastructure, cultural exchanges, the reorganization of cultural spaces, increasing awareness of belonging to the same ethnic group, education, history, mutual assistance, models to follow, diaspora, social and family life, entertainment, media and press, analysts, crisis support, citizenship status, the underground world, pan-Albanian nationalistic organizations, and more. The thesis that Albanians are a nation apart from others is gaining ground. The pressure on politicians is mounting and the commonly voiced position is that there is an Albanian national question, but that this would be solved when all Albanians are admitted to the EU; in short, Albanians are adjusting to the new circumstances. While all of their elites claim to pursue European integration, the unexpected outcome has been the return of the Albanian national question.
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Serbia’s European Vision
Monday, 01 February 2010, 6:30pm–8:00pm
Lindsey Rogers Room 717, International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Ivica Dacic, First Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia, and President of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).
Note: The lecture will be given in Serbian and translated into English.
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Environment, Natural Resources and Eco-Tourism: Tools for Peace Building, State Building and Sustainable Development:
The Balkans in Focus, with Comparative Perspectives
Friday, 29 January 2010
Room 1501 International Affairs Building
Please join the Center for International Conflict Resolution, in partnership with the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea for this one-day international symposium.
Keynote address by Mr. Predrag Nenezic, Minister for Tourism, Republic of Montenegro.
Co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute.
Click here for more information and to register
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Contemporary Balkan Cinema
Wednesday, 09 December 2009, 6:30pm–8:00pm
Garden Room 1, Faculty House
The NY-Bulgarian Film Festival, the Harriman Institute, and the East Central European Center cordially invite you to a roundtable discussion on contemporary Balkan cinema.
Participants:
Martichka Bojilova (Bulgaria) , AGIRPROP Films
Corina Suteu (Romania), Director Romanian Cultural Institute
Mihai Kirilov (Romania), Director NY-Romanian Film Festival and Transylvania IFF
Mevlud Akaya (Turkey), Director NY-Turkish Film Festival, Producer Akaya Films NY
H.E. Raiko Raichev, Permanent Representative of Bulgaria to the United Nations
Jana Karaivanova, Founder/CEO Bulgaria America Cultural Exchange Inc., Director NY-Bulgarian Film Festival
Moderator: James Jermanock, producer/director
Directions to Faculty House
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The Impact of the Global Crisis on Montenegro and the Western Balkans
Wednesday, 18 November 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1302 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Franjo Štiblar, University of Ljubljana.
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The End of Dayton Bosnia?
Tuesday, 17 November 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1302 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Florian Bieber, University of Kent.
Over the last three years, Bosnia has skirted around the edge of political paralysis. The profound political crisis of the country has pitted not just the divided political elites against each other, but also poisoned relations between the High Representative and the Bosnian Serb leadership. From Bosnian politicians to policy pundits, talk of an imminent end of Bosnia has become loader in recent months. Can Dayton Bosnia be saved? The severity of the Bosnian crisis is less the result of a fundamental change in the contentious politics in Bosnia, but rather a consequence of weakness of international actors in Bosnia. The indecisiveness of the European Union and the lack of an international strategy has been the primary source of the current crisis. This talk will trace the current crisis and its causes, compare it with crisis in post-war Bosnia and analyze the prospects for Bosnia’s survival. While the crisis bears some real risk, it is also an opportunity for Bosnia to move decisively from a post-war country to a more stabile political system.
Florian Bieber is Lecturer of East European Politics at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. In 2009 he held a visiting chair at Cornell University and is a visiting professor at the University of Bologna, Sarajevo and Central European University, Budapest. Between 2001 and 2006, he has been a regional representative, project advisor and senior research associate in Belgrade and Sarajevo for the European Centre for Minority Issues on human and minority rights in former Yugoslavia. He is the other of “Post-War Bosnia” (2006) and several articles on the political system and interethnic relations in Bosnia and Southeastern Europe.
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Kosovo: The Economic Keys to Stability
Friday, 06 November 2009, 10:00am–11:30am
Room 1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Nenad Popović, Member of Parliament, Belgrade.
This talk will address the economic aspects of Kosovo and Metohija's prospects for stability and peace by examining the economic problems that have confronted the province historically and how they are being addressed currently. Popovic will also examine UNMIK's management of Kosovo's economy and will explain how the EU mission has inherited a very difficult set of economic problems that are as important for maintaining stability as political and legal issues. He will pay special attention to issues of privatization, the potential for attracting foreign investment in Kosovo, the possibilities for Serbian-Albanian cooperation despite the ongoing dispute over status, and the current economic difficulties of Kosovo's Serb and other minorities.
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Memories of a Balkan Childhood: Wayne Vucinich in Hercegovina in the 1920s
Wednesday, 04 November 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the School of International and Public Affairs, the Harriman Institute, the European Institute and the East Central European Center of Columbia University in welcoming Larry Wolff of New York University.
For four decades, Professor Wayne Vucinich of Stanford University was perhaps the leading academic specialist on the Balkans in the United States. This lecture will discuss Vucinich’s memoirs, especially his recollections of his early life as a goatherd in the mountains of Hercegovina in the 1920s, and offer anthropological reflections on his childhood as he later looked back upon it from his perspective as a distinguished professor of Balkan history in the United States. Vucinich provided a detailed account of "the world we have lost" in the Balkans, and of the the traditional society of the Serbian village and zadruga as that society was beginning to be transformed by modernity in interwar Yugoslavia. The lecture will reflect on the connections between this early life and Vucinich's later academic career.
Larry Wolff was a doctoral student of Wayne Vucinich at Stanford. Wolff is now professor of history at NYU and director of the NYU Center for European and Mediterranean Studies. His books include "Inventing Eastern Europe" (1994), "Venice and the Slavs: The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment" (2001), and the forthcoming "The Idea of Galicia: History and Fantasy in Habsburg Political Culture" (2010). Professor Wolff is also the editor of the Vucinich memoirs: "Memoirs of My Childhood in Yugoslavia" (2007).
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Antagonistic Tolerance: Competitive Sharing of Religious Sites in the Balkans & Turkey
Thursday, 29 October 2009, 6:00pm–7:30pm
Room 1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute in welcoming Robert M. Hayden (University of Pittsburgh).
“Antagonistic Tolerance” describes long-term interaction over long periods, between Self – and Other –defining communities who live intermingled but not intermarrying. The model predicts long periods of peaceful interaction and even religious syncretism when dominance of one group over the other is clear but periods of violence when dominance is threatened. The Antagonistic Tolerance model sees ethno-religious conflict as due neither to supposed “ancient hatreds” nor to the machinations of political entrepreneurs, but rather as a form of contestation between self-distinguishing groups that is usually peaceful but sometimes violent, with both conditions predictable when relative dominance is known.
This lecture looks at “antagonistic tolerance” as it has been manifested in Anatolia and in the Christian-dominated countries that won independence from the Ottoman Empire. Dominance is often symbolized by control over major religious sites, and such sites provide a focus for contestation when dominance is unclear. A number of such sites will be analyzed in this lecture.
The larger Antagonistic Tolerance project from which the materials for this lecture have been drawn focuses on similar phenomena in Bulgaria, ancient India, formerly Portugese India, Portugal from Roman times through the reconquest, and Turkey. This larger project has been funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
Suggested reading: Robert M. Hayden, “Antagonistic Tolerance: Competitive Sharing of Religious Sites in South Asia and the Balkans.” Current Anthropology 43 (April 2002), 205-219.
Robert M. Hayden is Professor of Anthropology, Law and Public & International Affairs and Director of the Center for Russian & East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He is well known as an expert on the contemporary Balkans, and has also done extensive research in and on India. Professor Hayden is Principle Investigator on the Antagonistic Tolerance project.
This event is co-sponsored by the Middle East Institute
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Brussels and the Western Balkans: Next Steps for the EU Integration Process
Monday, 26 October 2009, 9:00am–6:00pm
Kellogg Conference Center,International Affairs Building
Since the EU committed to enlarge to the Western Balkans at its 2003 Thessaloniki Summit, the countries of the region have made little progress in their efforts to join the European Union. This Harriman Institute/East Central European Center-Wilson Center conference will address the following questions:
1 Can the Western Balkan countries fulfill EU accession requirements as they now stand?
2) If not, does the EU need to come up with a new accession mechanism for the Western Balkan countries (and can it do so)?
3) If it is not realistic for the EU to come up with a new accession mechanism for the Western Balkans, what alternatives are there for accelerating the Western Balkans' accession process?
Participants:
Marie-Janine Calic, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich
Milica Delevic, Director, European Union Integration Office, Belgrade
Vladmir Drobnjak, Chief Negotiator for Accession Negotiations with the EU, Government of Croatia
Venelin Ganev, Miami University of Ohio
Nida Gelazis, Wilson Center, Washington, DC
Tim Judah, Balkans correspondent, The Economist
Erion Veliaj, Mjaft, Tirana
Presented by the Harriman Institute, the East Central European Center, and the Wilson Center of Washington, DC.
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Expert Witnesses at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
Thursday, 15 October 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1302 International Affairs Building
Please join the School of International and Public Affairs, the Harriman Institute, the European Institute and the East Central European Center of Columbia University in welcoming Richard A. Wilson of the University of Connecticut.
Why have prosecutors and defense attorneys called historians and social scientists as expert witnesses at the ICTY? Prosecutors and defense counsel both engage in a 'battle over the first paragraph' of the judgment and seek to frame the acts in a way that tilts the bench in their favor. Prosecutors are faced with cases where the evidentiary basis is weak and they must construct a circumstantial case built upon inference from scattered facts. Prosecutors in genocide cases have led expert evidence on nationalist history (e.g., Greater Serbia in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic) to seek to prove mens rea, that is, criminal intent of a premeditated kind. Defense expert witnesses are introduced to contest prosecutors' views on nationalism and to show instead the cultural side of nationalism-as encompassing its best and non-violent achievements in art, literature and cultural self-realization. Experts can also be part of a tu quoque defense, whereby criminal acts are portrayed as the product of recent and distant historical provocations and atrocities. We conclude with an evaluation of the ICTY's historical account of the 1991-5 conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
Richard A. Wilson is the Gladstein Distinguished Chair of Human Rights, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut. He has written on human rights, truth commissions and international criminal tribunals, and his authored or edited books include The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa (2001), Human Rights and the ‘War on Terror’ (2005) and Humanitarianism and Suffering: the mobilization of empathy (2008). Presently he holds a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is writing a book on ‘Judging History: the use of historical and social science evidence in international criminal trials’. He serves as the Chair of the Connecticut State Advisory Committee of the US Civil Rights Commission.
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Beyond Dayton in Bosnia: Challenges of International Withdrawal
Tuesday, 06 October 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the School of International and Public Affairs, the Harriman Institute, the European Institute and the East Central European Center of Columbia University in welcoming Sophia Sebastian of the London School of Economics and FRIDE, Madrid.
On May 14th a new crisis emerged in Bosnia when SNSD Leader Milorad Dodik managed to pass a resolution in the Republika Srpska National Assembly designed to undermine some of the key accomplishments of the state building process that had been in place since the end of the war in 1995. Although the crisis was eventually averted on June 20, it demonstrated, yet again, the highly volatile nature of Bosnian politics and the inherent challenges faced by an international community that has grown impatient, frustrated, and is oblivious as to how to resolve the Bosnian quagmire. The country continues to show no clear signs of political reconciliation and there is a lack of commitment to the process of EU accession.
Pressure from the international community for the reform of Dayton have increased in the past few years in the belief that a simpler institutional arrangement will give the state the required institutional capacity to comply with the EU accession process. All of the external efforts on constitutional reform, however, have failed thus far; mostly as a result of local ethnic power games. In this presentation Sofia Sebastian will discuss the recent dynamics involved in constitutional reform in Bosnia and explore the degree to which constitutional changes may serve as the means to resolve the political deadlock in this multi-ethnic country.
Sofia Sebastian is a non-resident Associate Fellow at the Madrid-based think tank FRIDE. She has recently received her doctorate from the London School of Economics with a dissertation entitled, State Building in Deeply Divided Societies: Beyond Dayton in Bosnia.
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- Beyond Dayton in Bosnia: Challenges of International Withdrawal
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Update from Pristina: Kosovo after Independence
Thursday, 24 September 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the School of International and Public Affairs, the Harriman Institute, the European Institute and the East Central European Center of Columbia University in welcoming Engjellushe Morina, Executive Director of the Kosovo Stability Initiative (IKS) in Pristina.
Prior to her joining IKS Ms. Morina was responsible for the Higher Education portfolio at the Public Diplomacy Section, U.S. Embassy, Prishtina. During the Kosovo final status negotiating process, she served as expert and consultant in the Cultural Heritage group within the Unity Team. Her input focused in particular on the protection of Cultural and Religious Heritage in Kosovo.
Ms. Morina’s gained her BA (Hons.) from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London (UCL), UK. Ms. Morina received a graduate degree in diplomatic studies at the University of Oxford, Somerville College.
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President Boris Tadić of Serbia
Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 6:00pm–7:00pm
Rotunda, Low Memorial Library
This World Leaders Forum program features a keynote address by
Boris Tadić,
President of the Republic of Serbia
“Opportunity Amidst Crisis: Consolidating the European Future of the Western Balkans”
Followed by a question and answer session with the audience
Please click on the event link to the right for event coverage
Co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute and the East Central European Center of Columbia University.
Registration is required and will open on Tuesday, September 15 at 9:00 a.m.
Please click on the PDF link to the right for event coverage.
Link to website
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Complicity and Community: Preserving Multiculturalism in World War II Sarajevo
Tuesday, 15 September 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1510 International Affairs Building
Please join the School of International and Public Affairs, the Harriman Institute, the European Institute and the East Central European Center of Columbia University in welcoming Emily Greble Balic of City College, New York.
How can multicultural societies persist through times of war, extreme nationalism, and ethnic cleansing? This is the central question of this talk, which examines how Sarajevo—a city shared by Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox Serbs, and Jews—retained its multicultural character through the most devastating chapter of twentieth-century European history, the Second World War. Taking on conventional wisdom about the pervasiveness of nationalism and political ideologies in wartime Europe, Balic focuses instead on other kinds of identities that shaped local decision-making during the war. In particular, she examines how religious identity and urban solidarity--or a "city consciousness"--influenced genocidal policies in the town."
Emily Greble Balic is Assistant Professor of History at The City College of New York. A specialist on the modern Balkans, particularly the countries of the former Yugoslavia, her research and teaching focuses on questions of nationalism, civil war and genocide, social transformation in twentieth century Europe, and Islam and the West. She is currently completing a book manuscript on the multicultural city of Sarajevo during the Second World War. Professor Balic received her MA and Ph.D. in East European History from Stanford University in 2007. She received a B.A. in history from the College of William and Mary in 1999. Prior to starting at City College, she held fellowships at the Remarque Institute at New York University and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. In 2004-2005, she was a Fulbright-Hayes and IREX fellow in Bosnia and Croatia.
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Serbia: European Perspectives and Regional Cooperation
Friday, 08 May 2009, 6:30pm–8:00pm
Room 1219 International Affairs Building
The Harriman Institute Ambassador's Forum and the Njegos Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture cordially invite you to attend a talk by H.E. Pavle Jevremovic, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Serbia, entitled:
"Serbia: European Perspectives and Regional Cooperation"
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When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans
Thursday, 30 April 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
The Harriman Institute presents a talk by John V.A. Fine, University of Michigan.
After several decades of working on texts produced over the past millennium
about the Balkans, John Fine had been struck by the fact that ethnicity was
an extremely rare phenomenon in pre-19th century texts. This observation
became relevant in the 1990s when ethnicity tied to alleged ancient ethnic
hatreds became so destructive in the Balkans. John Fine obtained impressions
about ethnicity's absence from sources about the whole region: Greece,
Bulgaria, Albania, and ex-Yugoslavia, and saw the need for a well-documented
study. Fine used Croatia as a case-study, partly because Croatians were among the most active in vocalizing their alleged centuries of national striving, but also because they (besides the Greeks) were the current Balkan nationality with the richest sources, both from the people living in the so-called Triune Kingdom and also from their Habsburg and Italian neighbors.
Fine will examine domestic and foreign sources about the peoples of Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia from the Slavic invasions into the early 19th century. He will also examine all the labels for communities-whether the community was broadly conceived (e.g., all of Dalmatia) or narrowly (e.g., just Dubrovnik) and also who was considered as being in the community, noting the most common and rarest ones and then determining to the degree possible the label's meaning-e.g., did "Croatian," "Dalmatian," etc., refer to a people/ethnicity, or inhabitants of a state or other political entity, geographical region, class (e.g., nobility), language or whatever. Fine's seven-year research for this study found that the term "Croatia" was relatively rarely used in the three regions making up modern Croatia, and that an "ethnic" significance was rarely attached to any term.
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The Politics of Communism, Ethno Religious Conflict, and the Role of Media in the Former Yugoslavia and Former Soviet Union
Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 6:10pm–7:45pm
413 Kent Hall
The Harriman Institute presents a discussion on and the role of media in the Former Yugoslavia and Former Soviet Union.
Featuring journalists Erol Avdovic (Former Yugoslavia), Nikola Krastev (Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union) and Marija Sajkas (Former Yugoslavia).
Moderated by Tanya Domi, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs, The Harriman Institute.
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Weathering the Economic Storm: Fostering Stability in Southeastern Europe
Monday, 27 April 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1501 International Affairs Building
The Harriman Institute welcomes H.E. Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Hellenic Republic.
Co-sponsored by the Program in Hellenic Studies and the Columbia University
Hellenic Association.
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Political Realignments in the Balkans: The Case of Greece
Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs
Please join the Harriman Institute for a lecture by Aristotle Tziampiris, University of Piraeus, Greece, & Visiting Scholar, Harriman Institute.
Tziampiris will begin by considering the theoretical implications of Samuel Huntington's prediction that cultural factors and considerations will move Greek foreign policy to gradually develop much closer and friendlier ties with Russia. Tziampiris will then proceed to examine the major changes and developments in Greek foreign policy in the Balkan region from 2004-2009. Emphasis will be placed on a series of energy-related deals with Moscow, as well as on disagreements with the United States over various aspects of the Macedonian name dispute and the recognition of Kosovo. The presentation will conclude by evaluating the relevance of cultural factors in the determination of policy decisions in Athens, and will then examine potential areas of cooperation and discord between Greece, Russia and the US in the near future.
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Political Status and Ethnic Stigma in Balkan Politics
Thursday, 02 April 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
The Harriman Institute presents a talk by Roger Petersen, Political Science, MIT.
In recent years, political scientists have generally studied power in a narrow sense and have not devoted as much attention to status and prejudice. Yet, it is difficult to ignore these factors as they have historically played out in the Western Balkans. Theoretically, Petersen’s talk will discuss how to incorporate emotions relating to status reversals and ethnic stigmas into political science models and “games.” Empirically, Petersen will show how incorporating these elements into the analysis will help explain variation in political outcomes across regions and states where Slavs and Albanians have lived in close proximity: Kosovo, Montenegro, South Serbia, and Macedonia.
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A Critical Analysis of Corruption Theories with Macedonian Illustrations
Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
The Harriman Institute presents a talk by Robert Hislope, Department of Political Science Union College.
Hislope will examine the transnational politics of anticorruption discourse and practices in the context of Macedonia’s post-communist transition. Unlike the other post-Yugoslav republics, Macedonia experienced a decade of relative ethnic calm and interethnic coalition government. In 2001, the country endured a six-month conflict that combined the interests of regional Albanian paramilitaries and a disaffected Albanian public within Macedonia. Hislope will addresses two basic questions: (1) what role did corruption play during Macedonia’s alternate periods of peace and conflict? And (2) how does the Macedonian experience reflect on theories of corruption?
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The Economic Hardships of Bosnian Women: Examples from Srebrenica
Friday, 13 March 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute, the Center for the Study of Human Rights, and the Advocacy Project of Washington, DC, for a brownbag discussion with Beba Hadzic, the founder of BOSFAM, an organization in Srebenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, that employs local women to produce handicrafts. BOSFAM is known for creating Memorial Quilts, which remember those who have died during the Bosnian war. Mrs. Hadzic will be in the USA thanks to a grant from the Hermann Boll Foundation to raise awareness about the economic hardships faced by rural women in Bosnia.
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Nationalism, Myth and Politics: Russians and Serbs in the Dissolution of the USSR and Yugoslavia
Thursday, 12 March 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
The Harriman Institute presents a talk by Veljko Vujacic, Oberlin College.
In 1991, the USSR and Yugoslavia, two multinational communist federations with a history of indigenous communist revolutions and similar nationality policies, collapsed. However, whereas the USSR dissolved relatively peacefully along the lines of its constituent republics, Yugoslavia's break-up was violent. A key factor in these contrasting outcomes has to do with the very different reactions of the elites of core nations--Russians and Serbs--to the prospect of state disintegration. Why this difference? Vujacic will examine the deeper historical dynamic behind the different reactions of Russian and Serbian political and intellectual elites to state disintegration.
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SCREENINGS: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) and Armin (2007)
Thursday, 05 March 2009, 6:00pm–10:30pm
511 Dodge Hall, School of the Arts
The opening session of "New Balkan Film," a Festival and Multidisciplinary Conference Examining New Directions in Balkan Cinema.
The evening's program will proceed as follows:
Welcoming remarks with Gordon Bardos, Harriman Institute and Vangelis Calotychos, Program in Hellenic Studies.
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005, d. Cristi Puiu) 150 min, Romania. Introduced by Mihai Chiriliov, Director, Transilvania International Film Festival.
Armin (2007, d. Ognjen Sviličić) 82 min, Croatia. Director Ognjen Sviličić will be introduced by Yvonne Živković, Department of German and Comparative Literature, Columbia University.
Registration is required for this program.Click Here to Register.
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New Balkan Film—A Festival and Multidisciplinary Conference Examining New Directions in Balkan Cinema
Thursday, 05 March 2009–Sunday, 08 March 2009
The Harriman Institute
Together with
The Program in Hellenic Studies
The School of the Arts Film Division
and the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures
and with the gracious support of
The Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival
The Consulate General of the Hellenic Republic
The Consulate General of the Republic of Serbia
and the Romanian Cultural Institute
present
NEW BALKAN FILM
March 5 - 7, 2009
Columbia University in the City of New York
The fall of the Iron Curtain and the secessionist wars in the ex-Yugoslavia provoked considerable international interest in the Balkans throughout the last decade of the twentieth-century. These same events also engaged the creative powers of a set of film directors—Angelopoulos, Kusturica, Manchevski—, whose films garnered wide acclaim at festivals and sparked controversy in discussions of film. This multidisciplinary conference considers contemporary Balkan film made after this tumultuous decade. For while events in the region may have calmed, directors from the region continue to leave their mark. The conference features six films released within the last five years, to be screened in the presence of, and in conversation with, their directors. It also brings together scholars from Columbia University with an international group of critics drawn from the disciplines of film studies, literary, cultural and gender studies, sociology, and art history. Together, they will discuss new trends, transformations, and concerns of a new generation of Balkan filmmakers.
Registration for Thursday evening's screenings is required. Please register by following the link below. For all other events, no registration is necessary.
Click Here to Register
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Croatia after Independence: Achievements and Challenges
Friday, 27 February 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
The Harriman Institute presents a talk by Sabrina Ramet, Norwegian University of Science and Technology and
Dean Vuletic, Columbia University.
Since the collapse of socialist Yugoslavia in 1991, Croatia has charted an independent course, successfully defending its borders in a four-year war against Serb insurgents backed by Belgrade. After nearly a decade under its controversial president, Franjo Tudjman, Croatia is now on track to join the European Union and NATO. Since the death of President Tudjman, Croatia has fought a resolute battle against crime and corruption, and has also faced a myriad of challenges ranging from press freedom to the desire of Serb refugees to return to their homes in Croatia to the attainment of civil partnerships by gays and lesbians. Ramet and Vuletic will address issues of political and economic transformation, foreign policy, religion, literature, gay/lesbian issues, anarchist activism, and Serb refugees.
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The Role of the EU in Stabilizing the Balkans, 1991-2009
Tuesday, 17 February 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
The Harriman Institute presents a talk by Ana S. Trbovich, Faculty of Economics, Finance and Administration (FEFA), University of Singidunum, Belgrade.
In response to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1991, the EU (then the European Community) devised a recognition policy that was politically and legally controversial, particularly in the case of Yugoslavia where the home state did not consent to secession of its administrative units. Yet the EU’s recognition policy was also progressively innovative in that it aimed to impose high human and minority rights standards on the new states. However, these norms were not applied in practice, which undermined the potentially mitigating and reconciliatory effect of the recognition policy. Following the wars, the European Union endorsed the conditionality policy towards the Western Balkans, using the European integration process and its economic assistance (and withholding of these as a stick) to stimulate reforms that would stabilize the region, yet again with selective application. Trbovich will examine the successes and missed opportunities of the EU’s approach, discuss the lessons learned, and provide recommendations for future policy.
Dr Ana S. Trbovich teaches European Integration, Negotiations and Management of Public Administration at the Faculty of Economics, Finance and Administration (FEFA), University of Singidunum, Belgrade, Serbia, and serves as the Policy and Workforce Development Director of USAID Competitiveness Project. From 2002 to 2006, Dr Trbovich served as Assistant Minister of International Economic Relations in the Government of Serbia, charged with coordinating Serbia’s EU accession process and foreign investment policies. She holds a PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, two Masters Degrees (MALD, Fletcher School; MPA, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard) and a BA from Tufts University. Dr Trbovich further specialized in the European Union policies at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques. She is the author of A Legal Geography of Yugoslavia’s Disintegration (Oxford University Press, 2008) and numerous articles in the field of economics, European integration and public sector management.
Co-sponsored by the East Central European Center
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Black Sea Regional Security in a Turbulent World
Thursday, 22 January 2009, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Saltzmann Institute for War and Peace, the Harriman Institute and the East Central European Center for "Black Sea Regional Security in a Turbulent World," a talk by General Constantin Degeratu, National Security Advisor to President Traian Basescu of Romania.
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The End or the Return of the Balkans?: Serbia, FYROM, Kosovo, Bosnia and Montenegro
Tuesday, 02 December 2008, 12:10pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
The Harriman Institute welcomes Dimitris Keridis, Associate Professor of International Relations, Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece, for a talk on Balkan politics.
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Food and Culture
Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 6:30pm–8:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute for a lecture by Professor Vladimir Zoric, of the University of Nottingham,in honor of the publication of the new book, Tastes of Belgrade, by Branka Todorovic and Krsnija Rakic.
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Interested in Bosnia & Herzegovina?
Tuesday, 11 November 2008, 12:00pm–1:00pm
1512 International Affairs Building
Interested in Bosnia & Herzegovina? Please join us for a discussion on the country, its history, its struggles and the way forward.
Bosnian snacks and refreshments will be provided!
Sponsored by: The Center for the Study of Human Rights, Humanitarian Affairs Working Group, Human Rights Working Group and Rightslink.
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International Peacebuilding in Semi-Independent Kosovo: Lessons Not
Learned
Thursday, 30 October 2008, 12:10pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute in welcoming Marie-Janine Calic for a conversation on peacebuilding in Kosovo.
Marie-Janine Calic is Professor for East European Studies at the University of Munich and visiting professor at the College of Europe (Natolin). She is currently Senior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS). From 1999 to mid-2002, she held the position of the political adviser to the Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe in Brussels. She also worked and consulted for UNPROFOR-Headquarters in Zagreb, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (The Hague), the European Commission and European Parliament (Brussels).
She has published and lectured extensively about the Balkans and is a regular commentator on Balkan affairs for the media. She is editor of the journal "Südosteuropa".
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Letter in a Bottle: Writing in a Transcultural Space
Thursday, 09 October 2008, 6:00pm–8:00pm
1512 International Affairs Building
The Harriman Institute and the Njegos Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture at Columbia University invite you to a program featuring Dubravka Ugresic entitled:
"Letter in a Bottle: Writing in a Transcultural Space."
Dubravka Ugresic was best known in the former Yugoslavia for her fiction, novels and short stories: Poza za prozu, 1978; Stefica Cvek u raljama zivota, 1981; Zivot je bajka, 1983; Forsiranje romana reke, 1988. Her novel Forsiranje romana reke was given the coveted NIN-award for the best novel of the year: Ugresic was the first woman to receive this honor. Croatian film director Rajko Grlic made a film U raljama zivota (1984) based on Ugresic’s short novel Stefica Cvek u raljama zivota. Ugresic co-authored the screenplay, as she did with screenplays for two other movies and a TV drama.
In 1991, when the war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Ugresic took a firm anti-nationalistic stand and consequently an anti-war stand. She started to write critically about nationalism (both Croatian and Serbian), the stupidity and criminality of war, and soon became a target of the nationalistically charged media, officials, politicians, fellow writers and anonymous citizens. She was proclaimed a “traitor”, a “public enemy” and a “witch”, ostracized and exposed to harsh and persistent media harassment. She left Croatia in 1993.
Dubravka Ugresic has continued writing since she began living abroad. She has published both novels (Muzej bezuvjetne predaje, Ministarstvo boli) and books of essays (Americki fikcionar, Kultura lazi, Zabranjeno citanje, Nikog nema doma). Ugresic’s essays have appeared in American (“Context”, “The Hedgehog Review”) and European newspapers and magazines (such as “Vrij Nederland”, “NRC Handelsblad”, “Die Zeit”, “Neue Zurcher Zeitung”, “Die Welt Woche”, and many others). She teaches occasionally at American and European universities. Her books have been translated into more then twenty languages. Dubravka Ugresic has received several major European literary awards. She is based in Amsterdam today, working as a freelance writer.
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Making or Breaking Kosovo: Applications of Dispersed State Control
Thursday, 02 October 2008, 12:10pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Dr. Sherrill Stroschein, Lecturer (Assistant Professor), Dept. of Political Science, University College London
In this talk, Stroschein uses the example of Kosovo to make a case for a dispersed state control model as an alternative to the territorial and hierarchical principles of the Weberian state. Rather than allocating governance powers in terms of territory, dispersed state controls are based on a functional principle, in which governance is allocated to various subunits by issue area or function. This examination is informed by recent debates in international relations theory on contractual and imperial network models of control, as well as work on non-territorial autonomy in the fields of nationalism and ethnic conflict. Stroschein will examine the practical application of a dispersed control model in the context of the governance structure proposed for Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in February 2008. Dr. Stroschein will conclude with an overview of the advantages of creative designs for states that move beyond territory and hierarchy, to deal with complex demographic and governing realities in regions such as the Balkans.
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Kosovo: From Occupation to Independence and Beyond
Wednesday, 01 October 2008, 4:00pm–6:00pm
1512 International Affairs Building
Please join the Harriman Institute in welcoming H.E. Skender Hyseni, Foreign Minister of Kosovo.
Space for this event is limited. RSVP required. Email eas2166@columbia.edu to reserve a seat.
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Kissinger and the Cyprus Crisis 1974 – New views on Realism
Tuesday, 23 September 2008, 12:10pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Jan Asmussen, Eastern Mediterranean University, Northern Cyprus
The recent release of archives relating to the Cyprus War of 1974 shed completely fresh light on the lead-up to the Turkish landing on the island and its aftermath. Jan Asmussen will talk on his new book, titled Cyprus at War – Diplomacy and Conflict during the 1974 Crisis (IB Tauris 2008). Based on the records from the British and American governments, Asmussen for the first time unpicks the truth behind this controversial conflict, the effects of which are still felt today: namely that, although there was no British-American involvement in the coup that overthrew Archbishop Makarios in July 1974, some members of British and American intelligence knew about Athens’ plans for a coup to occur at some point in the autumn of 1974 but were surprised by the earlier timetable. Equally controversially Asmussen explores why both the British and the Americans decided not to inform the Cyprus government as well as the reasons behind Britain’s surprising reluctance to exercise her right of intervention on the island. In addition, Asmussen explores the relation between Kissinger’s “realist” foreign policy, Watergate, détente and the origins of the unsolved Cyprus problem. It will be shown that the background to the 1974 war casts a long shadow right up to the failure of the Annan plan in 2004 and Turkey’s campaigns to join the European Union.
Jan Asmussen is Assistant Professor at Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Northern Cyprus. He previously served as Head of the Department of International Relations at Girne American University, Northern Cyprus. He studied History, Political Science, Sociology and Economic History in Kiel and Copenhagen. His researched has focused on diplomatic history and political developments in South-Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
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“Greece, the Balkans and the Search for Stability”
Thursday, 01 May 2008, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1118 International Affairs Building
Evangelos Venizelos is a Professor and accomplished scholar of Greek constitutional law. He has held numerous positions in the Greek government, including tenures as Minister of Culture, Minister for Development, Minister for Justice, Minister for Transport and Communications, Minister for the Press and Media, Deputy Minister to the Presidency, and government spokesman.
Co-sponsored by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation U.S.A.
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"(Un)flexible Loyalties, Evolving Identities"
Monday, 07 April 2008, 6:30pm–8:00pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Participants:
Oto Luthar, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Dejan Djokic, Goldsmith College, London
Dr. Pieter Judson, Swarthmore University
Gordon N. Bardos, Harriman Institute
Co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Slovenia and the SIPA Balkan Social Club
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"Creating Conditions for Peace and Stability in the Balkans: A View from Slovenia"
Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Franjo Stiblar, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, will present his new book The Balkan Conflict and It's Solutions, published in December of 2007.
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The Balkan Region and the Role of Greece
Tuesday, 01 April 2008, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Dusan Sidjanski, President of the European Cultural Center and Special Advisor to the President of the European Commission
The collapse of the former Yugoslavia and the civil and ethnic wars which followed were among major factors which provoked the re-emergence of feelings of nationalism. Sidjianski will discuss the present situation in southeastern Europe with particular focus on Kosovo. The role of Greece will be discussed especially in relations with the European Union and Balkan countries.
Co-sponsored by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, USA
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Post-war Perspectives of Youth across the Former-Yugoslavia
Tuesday, 04 March 2008, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Colette Daiute
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
"I spent my whole life in the war and I am always sympathetic towards people who are going through the same thing as we have," -- 21 year-old Curcia in Sarajevo.
Previous research on the psycho-social consequences of war has focused on damage to those directly involved and prevention among those in the post-war generation. In contrast, the inquiry discussed in this presentation examines how young people growing up in diverse ositions of the post-war Western Balkan ontext understand the challenges and pportunities in their societies. Toward this goal of exploring the interdependent development of individuals and society, Daiute will discuss the design and results of a study with young people aged 12 to 27 growing up in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, erbia, and a refugee community in the U.S. The talk will highlight nsights that differ from some common ssumptions about the concerns of youth in post-war situations.
Colette Daiute, currently a Visiting Scholar at the Harriman Institute, is Professor and Deputy Executive Officer of Psychology at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Daiute's research focuses on social development among youth in situations of political-economic crisis and transition.
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"Peacebuilding in the Balkans: The View from the Ground Floor," presented by
Paula M. Pickering
Monday, 18 February 2008, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
When social scientists evaluate peacebuilding projects they tend to focus on elites and newly constructed institutions. However, international programs that do not resonate among ordinary people risk defeating institutional reforms and alienating citizens, which threaten efforts toward sustainable peace. Pickering will discuss data gathered through extensive fieldwork in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia that highlight how ordinary people in natural settings react to and thus influence peacebuilding efforts. These findings have implications for other deeply divided areas of Eurasia.
Paula Pickering is an Assistant Professor of Government at the College of William and Mary. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan and her B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University. Her research focuses on postconflict state building in the Balkans and Western aid for promoting democracy in Eastern Europe. Between 1990 and 1994, she worked as a research analyst on Eastern Europe for the U.S. Department of State. Her book, Peacebuilding in the Balkans: The View from the Ground Floor, was published by Cornell University Press in December 2007.
Paula Pickering
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Independent Kosova: Regional Implications
Monday, 28 January 2008, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Elez Biberaj, Managing Director, Voice of America Eurasia Division
With the collapse of the Troika mediation efforts and the UN Security Council’s inability to agree to a solution of Kosova’s final status, Albanians are poised to declare the region’s independence. Hashim Thaci, the former rebel leader who was elected prime minister on January 9, 2008, has indicated that Kosova will take this momentous decision within the next several weeks – most likely after the Serbian presidential elections – and in close coordination with the United States and leading European Union members that have expressed support for Kosova’s independence. Serbia, supported by Russia, strongly opposes Kosova’s independence and is insisting on further negotiations, although it is clear that neither Belgrade nor Prishtina seem willing to compromise on the fundamental questions of sovereignty over Kosova.
The imminent declaration of Kosova’s independence raises serious questions. How will Serbia react to the loss of Kosova? Will the declaration of Kosova’s independence strengthen Serb nationalists’ arguments for northern Mitrovica’s secession from Kosova and Srpska’s from Bosnia? Will an independent Kosova lead to regional stability, as Albanians and their supporters argue, or will it lead to confrontation and regional destabilization? Is an independent Kosova a viable state? Will Kosova serve as a precedent for Abkkhazia, South Osssetia, and other potential secessionist regions?
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The New Political Dynamics of Southeastern Europe
Wednesday, 23 January 2008, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Presenter: Gordon N. Bardos
Assistant Director, Harriman Institute
Discussant: Alex N. Grigor'ev
Executive Director, Project on Ethnic Relations, Princeton, NJ
The Balkans are undergoing their most profound period of change since Slobodan Milosevic's overthrow in 2000. Some changes--such as the expansion of the EU and NATO to several countries in the region and the promotion of regional free trade agreements--have been positive. Others, however, have potentially destabilizing effects. These new developments--the creation of new states, the changing of borders, the withdrawal of the U.S. military presence in the region, E.U. indecision over when the Western Balkan countries will be admitted into the union, and the return of Russia as a major player in the region--are increasing strategic uncertainty in the Balkans, and are taking place within an overall regional context of economic depression, the sub-optimal performance of democratic
institutions, and the contested popular legitimacy of a number of these states.
Bardos will discuss these new developments,as well as analyze a number of issues international policy must deal with in the coming years as it tries to maintain forward momentum in the region's democratic transition: the utility of consociational versus integrative political mechanisms in multiethnic Balkan states, the advantages and disadvantages of strict policies of conditionality as applied to the Balkan countries, and the importance of expanding the EU and NATO into the Western Balkans.
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'Titostalgia' - The Socio-Cultural Aspects of Nostalgia for Tito
Monday, 01 October 2007, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Mitja Velikonja
Department of Cultural Studies
School of Social Sciences
University of Ljubljana
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Columbia University World Leaders Forum and the Harriman Institute present: Željko Komšić, Presidency Chairman of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Thursday, 27 September 2007, 4:00pm–5:00pm
Low Memorial Library, 116th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam
Mr. Komšić was born on January 20, 1964, in Sarajevo where he completed his education, receiving his law degree from the University of Sarajevo. During his schooling, he was active in the student movement. He also graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.
In 1992, he worked as a lawyer at the Institute for Pension Insurance of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Immediately after the beginning of the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, he voluntarily joined the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He demonstrated exceptional bravery in defending Sarajevo and received the Zlatni ljiljan (“Golden Lilly”), the highest military decoration. In the army he attained the rank of First Lieutenant and in 1996, he was demobilized at his own request.
From 1996 to 1998, he was employed at the Federal Ministry for Displaced Persons and Refugees. Mr. Komšić embarked upon an active political career as a member of the Social Democratic Party of BH and was elected a member of the City Council of Sarajevo. From 1998 to 2000, he was the President of the City Council of Sarajevo. In the 2000 local elections, he was elected Mayor of the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo, a position he held till the autumn of 2001.
Following the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he was appointed as the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Belgrade in 2001. In the spring of 2003, he resigned from the post of BH Ambassador to the FR of Yugoslavia as a gesture of disapproval towards the nationalist concept of governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Mr. Komšić was elected into the top party leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 2003 to 2004, he performed the duties of Deputy Mayor of the City of Sarajevo. Mr. Komšić won the 2004 local elections, becoming Mayor of the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo.
At the Party Congress he was elected vice-president of the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a position he still holds today.
In the general election held in 2006, he ran as a candidate for the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Komšić emerged victorious and was elected to a four-year term as a member (chairman) of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Komšić took over the chairmanship of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 6, 2007.
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The Balkans and EU Enlargement
Monday, 07 May 2007, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Vladimir Gligorov
Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies
Co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Europe, the Harriman
Institute, and the East Central European Center
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At the Periphery of Radical Islam: Bosnia-Herzegovina
Thursday, 03 May 2007, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
LTC. Steven Oluic, Ph.D. (United States Military Academy, West Point)
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Bosnia-Herzegovina: Should it Survive?
Monday, 09 April 2007, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Neven Andjelic (Visiting Fulbright Scholar, UC-Berkeley)
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The Consolidation of Democracy in Serbia after 2000
Thursday, 05 April 2007, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Dusan Pavlovic (Department of Political Science, University of Belgrade)
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Of Novelty and Oblivion: What We Can Learn from Dissidents under Communism
Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 6:30pm–8:30pm
The Library at the Italian Academy (1161 Amsterdam Avenue, between 116th and 118th Streets)
Aleksa Djilas (Belgrade, Serbia)
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De-Balkanizing the Balkans: Is There a Role for Greece?
Monday, 26 March 2007, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Theodore Couloumbis (Professor Emeritus, University of Athens)
Co-sponsored by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, USA
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Putting Partition Back on the Table: Rethinking Borders in Balkan Democracies
Thursday, 22 March 2007, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Timothy William Waters (School of Law, Indiana University)
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The Balkans' European Potential and its Significance in International
Affairs
Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Anna Diamantopoulou (Member of the Hellenic Parliament)
Co-sponsored by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, USA
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Design of Terror: The Making of the Sarajevo Siege, 1991-1995
Monday, 05 March 2007, 6:30pm–8:00pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Robert Donia (Research Associate, Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Michigan)
Robert Donia is the author of Islam under the Double Eagle: The Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina (East European Monographs, 1981), and co-author (with John V.A. Fine) of Bosnia-Herzegovina: A Tradition Betrayed (Columbia University Press, 1994).
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Post-referendum Montenegro: Challenges for Internal Stability
Monday, 29 January 2007, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1118 International Affairs Building
Andrija Mandic (Leader of the Serbian People’s Party, Parliament of the Republic of Montenegro)
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Serbian Democracy and the Kosovo Question
Wednesday, 24 January 2007, 12:15pm–1:30pm
1510 International Affairs Building
Steven L. Burg (Brandeis University)
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Rationality and Emotion in the Reconstruction of Balkan States
Tuesday, 05 December 2006, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Roger Petersen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
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Complicity with Evil: The United Nations in the Age of Modern Genocide
Friday, 01 December 2006, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1302 International Affairs Building
Adam LeBor (Central European Correspondent, The Times of London)
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Kosova Independence and its Reflections on Developments in the Balkans
Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1501 International Affairs Building
Hashim Thaci (President, Democratic Party of Kosova)
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On Cannibals and Europeans: What a Serb Learned in Africa
Monday, 13 November 2006, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
Zoran Milutinovic (School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London)
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EUrosis: An Analysis of EU Discourse in Slovenia
Wednesday, 08 November 2006, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1302 International Affairs Building
Mitja Velikonja (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Co-sponsored by the East Central European Center and the Institute for the Study of Europe
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The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s
Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 12:00pm–1:30pm
1219 International Affairs Building
V.P. Gagnon (Ithaca College)
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Regional Security in
Southeastern Europe
Thursday, 30 March 2006, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1219 IAB
Dr. Yannos Papantoniou
MP (Greek Parliament)
Former Minister of National Defense, National Economy and Finance
Co-sponsored by the University Seminars Program, Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA)
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A European Bridgehead in the Balkans: Greek Foreign Policy and Realities in the Region since 1990
Friday, 10 March 2006, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1219 IAB
Dr. Theodoros Pangalos
MP (Greek Parliament)
Former Minister of Culture, Foreign Affairs
Co-sponsored by the University Seminars Program, Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA)
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Update from Pristina: Kosovo after Independence
Friday, 24 September 2004, 12:00pm–1:30pm
Room 1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the School of International and Public Affairs, the Harriman Institute, the European Institute and the East Central European Center of Columbia University in welcoming Engjellushe Morina of the Kosovo Stability Initiative, Pristina.
Engjellushe Morina is the Executive Director of the Kosovo Stability Initiative (IKS) in Pristina. Prior to her joining IKS she was responsible for the Higher Education portfolio at the Public Diplomacy Section, U.S. Embassy, Prishtina. During the Kosovo final status negotiating process, Mr. Morina served as expert and consultant in the Cultural Heritage group within the Unity Team. Her input focused in particular on the protection of Cultural and Religious Heritage in Kosovo.
Mr. Morina’s gained her BA (Hons.) from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London (UCL), UK. Ms. Morina received a graduate degree in diplomatic studies at the University of Oxford, Somerville College.
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Update from Pristina: Kosovo after Independence
Wednesday, 31 December 1969, 7:00pm
Room 1219 International Affairs Building
Please join the School of International and Public Affairs, the Harriman Institute, the European Institute and the East Central European Center of Columbia University in welcoming Engjellushe Morina of the Kosovo Stability Initiative, Pristina.
Engjellushe Morina is the Executive Director of the Kosovo Stability Initiative (IKS) in Pristina. Prior to her joining IKS she was responsible for the Higher Education portfolio at the Public Diplomacy Section, U.S. Embassy, Prishtina. During the Kosovo final status negotiating process, Mr. Morina served as expert and consultant in the Cultural Heritage group within the Unity Team. Her input focused in particular on the protection of Cultural and Religious Heritage in Kosovo.
Mr. Morina’s gained her BA (Hons.) from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London (UCL), UK. Ms. Morina received a graduate degree in diplomatic studies at the University of Oxford, Somerville College.
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