Events / Program: Europe’s Futures

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	Eroding Trust	Wed, 07.10.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Ivan Vejvoda Srdjan Cvijic	Eroding Trust Wed, 07.10.2020 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Srdjan Cvijic Series: Seminars and Colloquia Freedom came to Serbia in 2000, with a decade-long delay with respect to the rest of the post-Communist Europe. Ever since, the country has been on a wobbly transition towards an established democracy and EU membership. More than Serbia’s inability to settle firmly on a Westward geopolitical course and its uneasy relationship with its neighbors, it is the lack of trust between the citizens and their government internally that stood in the way of the construction of a lasting democracy. Was there a political conspiracy to murder of Zoran Djindjic, the first democratically elected Prime Minister since WW2? Did a criminal network steal more than three thousand babies from mid-1950s to 2000, and gave them to illegal adoption? Is sustainable democratisation compatible with the unreformed security service and their monopoly on secrets? Is the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic by the current regime historically unique, or can it be set in the broader historical perspective of state capture and disregard of the independent institutions in Serbia and Yugoslavia? The answer to these questions concerning Serbia can serve as an allegory for all of the post-Communist world’s untold stories that combined, offer an explanation to its shaky democratization in the last three decades. Populists and their outlandish conspiracy theories did not come from thin air. It is the lack of transparency and accountability of the mainstream governments that created reservoirs of disgruntled citizens thus transforming them in an easy prey for the enemies of democracy. Read more
Eroding Trust Wed, 07.10.2020 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Srdjan Cvijic Series: Seminars and Colloquia Freedom came to Serbia in 2000, with a decade-long delay with respect to the rest of the post-Communist Europe. Ever since, the country has been on a wobbly transition towards an established democracy and EU membership. More than Serbia’s inability to settle firmly on a Westward geopolitical course and its uneasy relationship with its neighbors, it is the lack of trust between the citizens and their government internally that stood in the way of the construction of a lasting democracy. Was there a political conspiracy to murder of Zoran Djindjic, the first democratically elected Prime Minister since WW2? Did a criminal network steal more than three thousand babies from mid-1950s to 2000, and gave them to illegal adoption? Is sustainable democratisation compatible with the unreformed security service and their monopoly on secrets? Is the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic by the current regime historically unique, or can it be set in the broader historical perspective of state capture and disregard of the independent institutions in Serbia and Yugoslavia? The answer to these questions concerning Serbia can serve as an allegory for all of the post-Communist world’s untold stories that combined, offer an explanation to its shaky democratization in the last three decades. Populists and their outlandish conspiracy theories did not come from thin air. It is the lack of transparency and accountability of the mainstream governments that created reservoirs of disgruntled citizens thus transforming them in an easy prey for the enemies of democracy. Read more
	The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers	Wed, 23.09.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Dimitar Bechev Ivan Vejvoda	The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers Wed, 23.09.2020 Speakers: Dimitar Bechev Ivan Vejvoda Series: Seminars and Colloquia Starting with the annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014, scholars and analysts have been debating the standoff between the West and competitors such as Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, and lately China on Europe’s periphery. “The return of geopolitics” has become a standard phrase to describe the new moment in the international politics of Eastern and Southeast Europe. A contrast is drawn with the 2000s, the highmark of the European Union’s “transformative power” and NATO’s eastward expansion. But the top-down view highlighting the preferences and actions of big players, including core EU member states like Germany and France, Russia, Turkey etc. overlooks the critical role played by peripheral countries and their elites. Rather than being the object of great powers’ decisions, they manipulate rivalries in pursuit of political advantage. Though the domestic arena provides entry points for external actors’ influence it also empowers incumbent elites in the target countries. The talk drew on examples from Southeast Europe (the Western Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) but drew parallels to the post-Soviet space. Read more
The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers Wed, 23.09.2020 Speakers: Dimitar Bechev Ivan Vejvoda Series: Seminars and Colloquia Starting with the annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014, scholars and analysts have been debating the standoff between the West and competitors such as Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, and lately China on Europe’s periphery. “The return of geopolitics” has become a standard phrase to describe the new moment in the international politics of Eastern and Southeast Europe. A contrast is drawn with the 2000s, the highmark of the European Union’s “transformative power” and NATO’s eastward expansion. But the top-down view highlighting the preferences and actions of big players, including core EU member states like Germany and France, Russia, Turkey etc. overlooks the critical role played by peripheral countries and their elites. Rather than being the object of great powers’ decisions, they manipulate rivalries in pursuit of political advantage. Though the domestic arena provides entry points for external actors’ influence it also empowers incumbent elites in the target countries. The talk drew on examples from Southeast Europe (the Western Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) but drew parallels to the post-Soviet space. Read more
	Europe’s Futures Symposium 2020	Mon, 29.06.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Alida Vracic Bernd Marin Grigorij Mesežnikov Isabelle Ioannides Ivan Vejvoda Leszek Jazdzewski Niccolo Milanese Nicole Koenig Péter Krekó	Europe’s Futures Symposium 2020 Mon, 29.06.2020 Speakers: Alida Vracic Bernd Marin Grigorij Mesežnikov Isabelle Ioannides Ivan Vejvoda Leszek Jazdzewski Niccolo Milanese Nicole Koenig Péter Krekó Series: Seminars and Colloquia Eight Europe’s Futures Fellows of the 2019/20 cohort led by IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Vejvoda encapsulated the work done over the year in which the pandemic force opened new futures for Europe. Read more
Europe’s Futures Symposium 2020 Mon, 29.06.2020 Speakers: Alida Vracic Bernd Marin Grigorij Mesežnikov Isabelle Ioannides Ivan Vejvoda Leszek Jazdzewski Niccolo Milanese Nicole Koenig Péter Krekó Series: Seminars and Colloquia Eight Europe’s Futures Fellows of the 2019/20 cohort led by IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Vejvoda encapsulated the work done over the year in which the pandemic force opened new futures for Europe. Read more
	Leben im – und Wege aus dem – „Corona-Camp“	Mon, 11.05.2020	Seminars and Colloquia	Bernd Marin Ludger HagedornAugust Ruhs	Leben im – und Wege aus dem – „Corona-Camp“ Mon, 11.05.2020 Speakers: Bernd Marin Ludger HagedornAugust Ruhs Series: Seminars and Colloquia Der renommierte österreichische Sozialwissenschaftler Bernd Marin hat in zwei Interviews (beide in voller Länge nachzulesen im Corona Blog des IWM) das Leben im „Corona-Camp” (6. April; eine vielbeachtete Kurzfassung erschien am 12. April in der Ostersonntagsausgabe des KURIER) sowie Post-Quarantimes: Wege aus dem „Corona-Camp“ (29. April) kritisch reflektiert. Im Rahmen des virtuellen IWM-Kolloquiums stellte sich Bernd Marin öffentlich den Fragen zu seinen beiden Interviews (hier eine mögliche Auswahl) und diskutierte mit dem bekannten Psychiater August Ruhs. Read more
Leben im – und Wege aus dem – „Corona-Camp“ Mon, 11.05.2020 Speakers: Bernd Marin Ludger HagedornAugust Ruhs Series: Seminars and Colloquia Der renommierte österreichische Sozialwissenschaftler Bernd Marin hat in zwei Interviews (beide in voller Länge nachzulesen im Corona Blog des IWM) das Leben im „Corona-Camp” (6. April; eine vielbeachtete Kurzfassung erschien am 12. April in der Ostersonntagsausgabe des KURIER) sowie Post-Quarantimes: Wege aus dem „Corona-Camp“ (29. April) kritisch reflektiert. Im Rahmen des virtuellen IWM-Kolloquiums stellte sich Bernd Marin öffentlich den Fragen zu seinen beiden Interviews (hier eine mögliche Auswahl) und diskutierte mit dem bekannten Psychiater August Ruhs. Read more
	Liberalism in Crisis: Between Totalitarian Responses and Progressive Dreams	Tue, 25.02.2020	Panels and Discussions	Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Shalini Randeria Venelin GanevJacques Rupnik, Ana Blazeva, Katerina Kolozova	Liberalism in Crisis: Between Totalitarian Responses and Progressive Dreams Tue, 25.02.2020 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Shalini Randeria Venelin GanevJacques Rupnik, Ana Blazeva, Katerina Kolozova Series: Panels and Discussions In the past decade, many have spoken of the “crisis of democracy” due to the rise of populism in Europe, both in the East and the West, in the Union’s member states and in the aspiring member countries. But is democracy really what is at stake and in crisis nowadays, or is it a whole set of political-ideological values that are termed “liberal”? Can we argue that democracy is not a value system but an empty form of a political organization, a syntax that can be furnished with different semantics, including that of the illiberal world view as Viktor Orban has proposed years ago? Read more
Liberalism in Crisis: Between Totalitarian Responses and Progressive Dreams Tue, 25.02.2020 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Shalini Randeria Venelin GanevJacques Rupnik, Ana Blazeva, Katerina Kolozova Series: Panels and Discussions In the past decade, many have spoken of the “crisis of democracy” due to the rise of populism in Europe, both in the East and the West, in the Union’s member states and in the aspiring member countries. But is democracy really what is at stake and in crisis nowadays, or is it a whole set of political-ideological values that are termed “liberal”? Can we argue that democracy is not a value system but an empty form of a political organization, a syntax that can be furnished with different semantics, including that of the illiberal world view as Viktor Orban has proposed years ago? Read more
	How Can We Realise a Holistic Concept of Prosperity for the Many, not the Few?	Wed, 27.11.2019	Panels and Discussions	Ivan Vejvoda Shalini RanderiaFelwine Sarr, Christoph Badelt, Sergiu Manea, Sigrid Stagl, Boris Marte	How Can We Realise a Holistic Concept of Prosperity for the Many, not the Few? Wed, 27.11.2019 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Shalini RanderiaFelwine Sarr, Christoph Badelt, Sergiu Manea, Sigrid Stagl, Boris Marte Series: Panels and Discussions On 27 November, ERSTE Foundation welcomes you to the 4th Tipping Point Talk with Felwine Sarr, Professor of Economics at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal. His recent book, Afrotopia, presents a holistic approach to economic and cultural interaction, or rather, the cultural foundations of economic choices. Felwine Sarr’s lecture will be followed by a stage conversation with Christoph Badelt, Sergiu Manea, Shalini Raderia, Felwine Sarr and Sigrid Stagl. Read more
How Can We Realise a Holistic Concept of Prosperity for the Many, not the Few? Wed, 27.11.2019 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Shalini RanderiaFelwine Sarr, Christoph Badelt, Sergiu Manea, Sigrid Stagl, Boris Marte Series: Panels and Discussions On 27 November, ERSTE Foundation welcomes you to the 4th Tipping Point Talk with Felwine Sarr, Professor of Economics at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal. His recent book, Afrotopia, presents a holistic approach to economic and cultural interaction, or rather, the cultural foundations of economic choices. Felwine Sarr’s lecture will be followed by a stage conversation with Christoph Badelt, Sergiu Manea, Shalini Raderia, Felwine Sarr and Sigrid Stagl. Read more
	Europäische Nation vs. Europa der Nationen?	Sun, 10.11.2019	Panels and Discussions	Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Ruth WodakJacques Rupnik, Constanze Itzel	Europäische Nation vs. Europa der Nationen? Sun, 10.11.2019 Speakers: Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Ruth WodakJacques Rupnik, Constanze Itzel Series: Panels and Discussions Was hat die Nation zu einem Erfolgsmodell gemacht? Wie umgehen mit dem Wiedererstarken von Nationalismus und Isolationsbestrebungen? Und welche imperialen Vermächtnisse spielen in der aktuellen Identitätssuche Ost- und West-Europas eine Rolle? Read more
Europäische Nation vs. Europa der Nationen? Sun, 10.11.2019 Speakers: Ivan Krastev Ivan Vejvoda Ruth WodakJacques Rupnik, Constanze Itzel Series: Panels and Discussions Was hat die Nation zu einem Erfolgsmodell gemacht? Wie umgehen mit dem Wiedererstarken von Nationalismus und Isolationsbestrebungen? Und welche imperialen Vermächtnisse spielen in der aktuellen Identitätssuche Ost- und West-Europas eine Rolle? Read more
	1989 in a Day	Wed, 06.11.2019	Panels and Discussions	Aleksandra Głos Andrzej Waskiewicz Holly Case Ivan Vejvoda Kateryna Ruban Philipp Ther Volodymyr KulykErhard Busek, Vuk Velebit, Ralf Beste, Dagmar Rychnovská, Georgi Pirinski, Jana Tsoneva, Jennifer Bergerova, Raluca Alexandrescu	1989 in a Day Wed, 06.11.2019 Speakers: Aleksandra Głos Andrzej Waskiewicz Holly Case Ivan Vejvoda Kateryna Ruban Philipp Ther Volodymyr KulykErhard Busek, Vuk Velebit, Ralf Beste, Dagmar Rychnovská, Georgi Pirinski, Jana Tsoneva, Jennifer Bergerova, Raluca Alexandrescu Series: Panels and Discussions This is a series of conversations spanning various Eastern and Central European societies between someone, who was an active participant, or a close observer, of an event on a crucial date in 1989, and a person, who was still very young in 1989. Both speakers will start with personal reflections that will be followed by a debate about the relevance of this date/event today. Read more
1989 in a Day Wed, 06.11.2019 Speakers: Aleksandra Głos Andrzej Waskiewicz Holly Case Ivan Vejvoda Kateryna Ruban Philipp Ther Volodymyr KulykErhard Busek, Vuk Velebit, Ralf Beste, Dagmar Rychnovská, Georgi Pirinski, Jana Tsoneva, Jennifer Bergerova, Raluca Alexandrescu Series: Panels and Discussions This is a series of conversations spanning various Eastern and Central European societies between someone, who was an active participant, or a close observer, of an event on a crucial date in 1989, and a person, who was still very young in 1989. Both speakers will start with personal reflections that will be followed by a debate about the relevance of this date/event today. Read more
	Europe’s Futures Colloquium IV	Mon, 30.09.2019	Seminars and Colloquia	Bernd Marin Leszek Jazdzewski	Europe’s Futures Colloquium IV Mon, 30.09.2019 Speakers: Bernd Marin Leszek Jazdzewski Series: Seminars and Colloquia In cooperation with leading European organisations and think tanks IWM and ERSTE Foundation have joined forces to tackle some of the most crucial topics: asylum and migration, rule of law and democracy, European enlargement and social inclusion. We are creating a network of important EU actors, in particular between Austria, the Visegrád 4 countries and South-Eastern Europe. Europe’s Futures has clear objectives: a European Union that protects its citizens and offers more sustainable livelihoods than before; where Member States defend the fundamental values of a democratic order and rule of law; and where countries such as Austria continue to protect the Union’s democratization and enlargement agenda. Read more
Europe’s Futures Colloquium IV Mon, 30.09.2019 Speakers: Bernd Marin Leszek Jazdzewski Series: Seminars and Colloquia In cooperation with leading European organisations and think tanks IWM and ERSTE Foundation have joined forces to tackle some of the most crucial topics: asylum and migration, rule of law and democracy, European enlargement and social inclusion. We are creating a network of important EU actors, in particular between Austria, the Visegrád 4 countries and South-Eastern Europe. Europe’s Futures has clear objectives: a European Union that protects its citizens and offers more sustainable livelihoods than before; where Member States defend the fundamental values of a democratic order and rule of law; and where countries such as Austria continue to protect the Union’s democratization and enlargement agenda. Read more
	Illiberal Democracy: Contradiction, Ideology or Characteristic of our Age?	Mon, 30.09.2019	Panels and Discussions	Grigorij Mesežnikov Leszek Jazdzewski Luke Cooper Niccolo Milanese Péter KrekóKaterina Kolozova	Illiberal Democracy: Contradiction, Ideology or Characteristic of our Age? Mon, 30.09.2019 Speakers: Grigorij Mesežnikov Leszek Jazdzewski Luke Cooper Niccolo Milanese Péter KrekóKaterina Kolozova Series: Panels and Discussions Since Viktor Orbán used the term in 2014 to propose a new model for Europe, debates have raged over whether ‘illiberal democracy’ is a coherent concept at all, what distinguishes it from liberal democracy, and what its relationships are with terms such as populism, authoritarianism, state capture, nationalism and majoritarianism. Whilst academic circles have been trying to make sense of the idea, the term itself has shown political effectiveness, and informal alliances of illiberal leaders have appeared at the European elections, in summits on family policy, in international decision-making bodies and elsewhere. This seminar looked at phenomena of illiberal democracy from Macedonia, Hungary, Italy, the UK, Slovakia, Poland and considered what should be done to counter this discourse, by political institutions, by academics and by other political actors and activists. Read more
Illiberal Democracy: Contradiction, Ideology or Characteristic of our Age? Mon, 30.09.2019 Speakers: Grigorij Mesežnikov Leszek Jazdzewski Luke Cooper Niccolo Milanese Péter KrekóKaterina Kolozova Series: Panels and Discussions Since Viktor Orbán used the term in 2014 to propose a new model for Europe, debates have raged over whether ‘illiberal democracy’ is a coherent concept at all, what distinguishes it from liberal democracy, and what its relationships are with terms such as populism, authoritarianism, state capture, nationalism and majoritarianism. Whilst academic circles have been trying to make sense of the idea, the term itself has shown political effectiveness, and informal alliances of illiberal leaders have appeared at the European elections, in summits on family policy, in international decision-making bodies and elsewhere. This seminar looked at phenomena of illiberal democracy from Macedonia, Hungary, Italy, the UK, Slovakia, Poland and considered what should be done to counter this discourse, by political institutions, by academics and by other political actors and activists. Read more