Past Events

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	Systemic Earthquake: National, Regional and the Global Dimensions	Tue, 19.03.2019, 18:00	Panels and Discussions	Ivan KrastevAhmet Davutoğlu	Systemic Earthquake: National, Regional and the Global Dimensions Tue, 19.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Ivan KrastevAhmet Davutoğlu Series: Panels and Discussions In the second event of the series “Geopolitical Talks” IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Krastev talked with Ahmet Davutoğlu, former Prime Minister of Turkey (2014-2016), about the current geopolitical challenges on national, regional and international level. Read more
Systemic Earthquake: National, Regional and the Global Dimensions Tue, 19.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Ivan KrastevAhmet Davutoğlu Series: Panels and Discussions In the second event of the series “Geopolitical Talks” IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Krastev talked with Ahmet Davutoğlu, former Prime Minister of Turkey (2014-2016), about the current geopolitical challenges on national, regional and international level. Read more
	Soviet Ukrainian Patriotism in Brezhnev`s Dnipropetrovsk	Mon, 18.03.2019, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Andrii Portnov	Soviet Ukrainian Patriotism in Brezhnev`s Dnipropetrovsk Mon, 18.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Andrii Portnov Series: Seminars and Colloquia One of the biggest Soviet industrial centers, a city of more than a million people in southern Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk (today Dnipro), was closed to foreigners beginning in 1959 because of the secret rocket production in the city. It was also considered ‘Brezhnev’s city’ because the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was born nearby and began his career there. How was nationality, cultural and language politics performed and perceived in Soviet Ukraine in the 1960-70s? How was ‘Soviet’ connected/bordered to ‘Ukrainian’ in official discourse? How did the socialist realist novel ‘The Cathedral’ by Oles’ Honchar became an ‘anti-Soviet’ text, and what did that mean for the biggest closed city in Soviet Ukraine? Read more
Soviet Ukrainian Patriotism in Brezhnev`s Dnipropetrovsk Mon, 18.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Andrii Portnov Series: Seminars and Colloquia One of the biggest Soviet industrial centers, a city of more than a million people in southern Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk (today Dnipro), was closed to foreigners beginning in 1959 because of the secret rocket production in the city. It was also considered ‘Brezhnev’s city’ because the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was born nearby and began his career there. How was nationality, cultural and language politics performed and perceived in Soviet Ukraine in the 1960-70s? How was ‘Soviet’ connected/bordered to ‘Ukrainian’ in official discourse? How did the socialist realist novel ‘The Cathedral’ by Oles’ Honchar became an ‘anti-Soviet’ text, and what did that mean for the biggest closed city in Soviet Ukraine? Read more
	Between Predation and Protection	Thu, 14.03.2019, 18:00	Lecture	Keith Krause	Between Predation and Protection Violence, Order, and the “Insecurity Trap” Thu, 14.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Keith Krause Series: Lecture Why, despite long-term and general declines in all forms of lethal violence, are some states and regions caught in an “insecurity trap”? What are the processes and mechanisms that facilitated the emergence of pacific states in the 19th and 20th century, and where (and why) do these conditions not hold today? The talk explored the scope and dimensions of contemporary violence and insecurity, and detailed the reasons for the persistent failure of some states to provide security and order as a public good for their citizens. Read more
Between Predation and Protection Violence, Order, and the “Insecurity Trap” Thu, 14.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Keith Krause Series: Lecture Why, despite long-term and general declines in all forms of lethal violence, are some states and regions caught in an “insecurity trap”? What are the processes and mechanisms that facilitated the emergence of pacific states in the 19th and 20th century, and where (and why) do these conditions not hold today? The talk explored the scope and dimensions of contemporary violence and insecurity, and detailed the reasons for the persistent failure of some states to provide security and order as a public good for their citizens. Read more
	Statelessness in South Asia	Mon, 11.03.2019, 18:00	Lecture	Ranabir Samaddar	Statelessness in South Asia Mon, 11.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Ranabir Samaddar Series: Lecture The lecture examined the entanglements of citizenship policies and practices with the spread of statelessness today. It discussed the genesis of the Rohingya question in Myanmar in the broader context of citizenship registration drives in some postcolonial countries, which render massive number of “illegal immigrants” stateless. Current citizenship policies in these countries reflect the desire to achieve a perfect fit between the “right” kind of population and the “right size” of territory for a nation-state. But they must be also understood against the background of a shift in emphasis from jus soli to jus sanguinis, the existence of borderland populations and the no-where people, population flows across (post)colonial border formations and boundary delimitations and the growth of regional informal labour markets characterised by immigrant labour economies. In what ways is the production of statelessness in the postcolonial world different from the classical idea of statelessness originating from succession of states (for instance, Yugoslavia)? The talk also addressed the implications of such national citizen registers for international human rights laws and for key instruments on statelessness – the 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. It showed why the international legal understanding of statelessness is inadequate to theorise the growing phenomenon of statelessness today. Read more
Statelessness in South Asia Mon, 11.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Ranabir Samaddar Series: Lecture The lecture examined the entanglements of citizenship policies and practices with the spread of statelessness today. It discussed the genesis of the Rohingya question in Myanmar in the broader context of citizenship registration drives in some postcolonial countries, which render massive number of “illegal immigrants” stateless. Current citizenship policies in these countries reflect the desire to achieve a perfect fit between the “right” kind of population and the “right size” of territory for a nation-state. But they must be also understood against the background of a shift in emphasis from jus soli to jus sanguinis, the existence of borderland populations and the no-where people, population flows across (post)colonial border formations and boundary delimitations and the growth of regional informal labour markets characterised by immigrant labour economies. In what ways is the production of statelessness in the postcolonial world different from the classical idea of statelessness originating from succession of states (for instance, Yugoslavia)? The talk also addressed the implications of such national citizen registers for international human rights laws and for key instruments on statelessness – the 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. It showed why the international legal understanding of statelessness is inadequate to theorise the growing phenomenon of statelessness today. Read more
	Trojanow trifft: „Wie konnte das passieren?“ – Das Gespenst des Rechtsrucks in Österreich	Sun, 10.03.2019, 11:00	Panels and Discussions	Ilija TrojanowJosef Haslinger	Trojanow trifft: „Wie konnte das passieren?“ – Das Gespenst des Rechtsrucks in Österreich Sonntagsgespräche in der Roten Bar Sun, 10.03.2019, 11:00 Speakers: Ilija TrojanowJosef Haslinger Series: Panels and Discussions Ein Terrorakt im Herzen der österreichischen Hauptstadt ist der Nukleus des Romans Opernball von Josef Haslinger, zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung 1995 eine dystopische Übertreibung. Aber ganz aus der Luft gegriffen war das Szenario nicht, hatten doch rechtsextreme Anschläge und Briefbombenterror gerade das Land erschüttert. Eine Neue Rechte aus den diversesten Lagern, mit „wissenschaftlichem“, ideologischem oder religiösem Rüstzeug bewehrt, begann sich zu formieren – aus der Mitte der Gesellschaft heraus und in diese hineinwirkend. Ilija Trojanow sprach mit dem Autor und Mitbegründer der Menschenrechtsorganisation SOS Mitmensch Josef Haslinger über Fundamente des Rechtsextremismus, alte und neue Feindbilder und völkischen Katholizismus. Und wo steht Österreich heute, 25 Jahre nach der Romanfiktion? Read more
Trojanow trifft: „Wie konnte das passieren?“ – Das Gespenst des Rechtsrucks in Österreich Sonntagsgespräche in der Roten Bar Sun, 10.03.2019, 11:00 Speakers: Ilija TrojanowJosef Haslinger Series: Panels and Discussions Ein Terrorakt im Herzen der österreichischen Hauptstadt ist der Nukleus des Romans Opernball von Josef Haslinger, zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung 1995 eine dystopische Übertreibung. Aber ganz aus der Luft gegriffen war das Szenario nicht, hatten doch rechtsextreme Anschläge und Briefbombenterror gerade das Land erschüttert. Eine Neue Rechte aus den diversesten Lagern, mit „wissenschaftlichem“, ideologischem oder religiösem Rüstzeug bewehrt, begann sich zu formieren – aus der Mitte der Gesellschaft heraus und in diese hineinwirkend. Ilija Trojanow sprach mit dem Autor und Mitbegründer der Menschenrechtsorganisation SOS Mitmensch Josef Haslinger über Fundamente des Rechtsextremismus, alte und neue Feindbilder und völkischen Katholizismus. Und wo steht Österreich heute, 25 Jahre nach der Romanfiktion? Read more
	Historia i Prawda	Tue, 05.03.2019, 18:00	Panels and Discussions	Marcin Król Timothy Snyder	Historia i Prawda 29th Tischner Debate Tue, 05.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Marcin Król Timothy Snyder Series: Panels and Discussions Czy historia opisuje prawdę? Na jakiej prawdzie opiera się polityka historyczna? Czy uczciwy historyk może być przekonany, że mówi prawdę? Read more

	How Does Scholarship Persuade?	Mon, 04.03.2019, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ewa Atanassow Geoffrey Harpham	How Does Scholarship Persuade? Mon, 04.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Ewa Atanassow Geoffrey Harpham Series: Seminars and Colloquia In this talk, Geoffrey Harpham identified as one of the main sources of authority in a scholarly argument an implicit–or, in some cases, explicit–conversion narrative. This narrative, in which the scholar confronts evidence that compels him or her to a conclusion very different from the expected one, is at the core of scholarship as such, and illuminates both the intimacy and the complexity of the relations between the practice of scholarship and the concept of freedom. His primary example was the work of Bernard Lategan, a scholar who became a key figure in the history of apartheid in South Africa. Read more
How Does Scholarship Persuade? Mon, 04.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Ewa Atanassow Geoffrey Harpham Series: Seminars and Colloquia In this talk, Geoffrey Harpham identified as one of the main sources of authority in a scholarly argument an implicit–or, in some cases, explicit–conversion narrative. This narrative, in which the scholar confronts evidence that compels him or her to a conclusion very different from the expected one, is at the core of scholarship as such, and illuminates both the intimacy and the complexity of the relations between the practice of scholarship and the concept of freedom. His primary example was the work of Bernard Lategan, a scholar who became a key figure in the history of apartheid in South Africa. Read more
	Changing Politics and Geopolitics	Tue, 26.02.2019, 18:00	Panels and Discussions	Robert Sawers	Changing Politics and Geopolitics What does it mean for Europe? Tue, 26.02.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Robert Sawers Series: Panels and Discussions President Trump has now survived his first test as US President and, barring serious findings from the Mueller Inquiry, he will run for a second term with reasonable prospects of winning. Like him or not, he is set to be the most consequential president for fifty years. An assessment of the implications of a return to the sort of great power politics that the United States is now pursuing, away from the rules based international order that Europe (and previous US Presidents) have nurtured since WWII. A look at how China and Russia are responding, and the implications for the Middle East. Read more
Changing Politics and Geopolitics What does it mean for Europe? Tue, 26.02.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Robert Sawers Series: Panels and Discussions President Trump has now survived his first test as US President and, barring serious findings from the Mueller Inquiry, he will run for a second term with reasonable prospects of winning. Like him or not, he is set to be the most consequential president for fifty years. An assessment of the implications of a return to the sort of great power politics that the United States is now pursuing, away from the rules based international order that Europe (and previous US Presidents) have nurtured since WWII. A look at how China and Russia are responding, and the implications for the Middle East. Read more
	Democracy and Conspiracy	Mon, 25.02.2019, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Tobias Haberkorn	Democracy and Conspiracy On Contemporary Paranoia Mon, 25.02.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Tobias Haberkorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia Drawing on research about conspiracy theories and their communities, this talk aimed to elucidate a set of dilemmas that democratic societies find themselves in: The democratic quest for transparency, technocratic excellence, critique, certainty and control may well have undermined the foundations of democracy itself. While it is desirable to restore confidence in democratic institutions, we also have to ask ourselves if a society could be built on sustained mistrust. Read more
Democracy and Conspiracy On Contemporary Paranoia Mon, 25.02.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Tobias Haberkorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia Drawing on research about conspiracy theories and their communities, this talk aimed to elucidate a set of dilemmas that democratic societies find themselves in: The democratic quest for transparency, technocratic excellence, critique, certainty and control may well have undermined the foundations of democracy itself. While it is desirable to restore confidence in democratic institutions, we also have to ask ourselves if a society could be built on sustained mistrust. Read more
	Real Existing Post-Socialism	Mon, 18.02.2019, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Marci Shore Muriel Blaive	Real Existing Post-Socialism The Czech Politics of Totalitarianism Mon, 18.02.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Marci Shore Muriel Blaive Series: Seminars and Colloquia In the colloquium Muriel Blaive outlined her book project on memory politics in the Czech Republic. She especially pondered on the conflation between memory and commemoration, research and activism, history and politics. The talk broached five aspects: 1) the totalitarian paradigm adapted to the post-1989 Czech terrain; 2) an epistemology of the secret police file, and its instrumentalization; 3) oral history studies and the apparent paradox between an outward detestation of communism and a genuine nostalgia for communist times; 4) the relationship between legal prescriptions and academic quality, i.e. the law and context surrounding the creation of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in 2007; and 5) a reflection on collective memory manufacturing. Read more
Real Existing Post-Socialism The Czech Politics of Totalitarianism Mon, 18.02.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Marci Shore Muriel Blaive Series: Seminars and Colloquia In the colloquium Muriel Blaive outlined her book project on memory politics in the Czech Republic. She especially pondered on the conflation between memory and commemoration, research and activism, history and politics. The talk broached five aspects: 1) the totalitarian paradigm adapted to the post-1989 Czech terrain; 2) an epistemology of the secret police file, and its instrumentalization; 3) oral history studies and the apparent paradox between an outward detestation of communism and a genuine nostalgia for communist times; 4) the relationship between legal prescriptions and academic quality, i.e. the law and context surrounding the creation of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in 2007; and 5) a reflection on collective memory manufacturing. Read more