Situated in the fertile plains of northern Iraq, Mosul finds itself in close proximity to the site of the legendary Battle of Gaugamela, where over 2,000 years ago Alexander the Great broke through Darius III’s wall of chariots and seized an empire. After surviving countless wars and falling under the control of various kings and empires throughout history, this ancient city located at the heart of the Cradle of Civilization would go on to become the epicenter for manufacturing and mingling cultures in modern Iraq – a thriving metropolis composed of a diverse population of nearly 3 million residents.
It was in Mosul where, in July 2003, Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay were killed in a ferocious shootout with U.S. troops. From 2004 to 2008, most of the history-rich city found itself enveloped in the barbaric atavism of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) before having the savage Sunni insurgency repressed by U.S., coalition, and Iraqi forces. However, in December 2011, U.S. troops were withdrawn from the country, and with the Maliki Shiite government in Baghdad continuing with its disastrous sectarian policies, an even darker, rebranded version of AQI was approaching the revered city like a sandstorm on the horizon. By June 2014, hundreds of ISIS’s masked jihadists raced toward Mosul in their machine gun-armed pickup trucks and conquered the city with astonishing ease. From then on Mosul served as the genocidal terrorist army’s crown jewel in the Iraqi half of its self-styled caliphate.
The President of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD), Vuk Jeremić delivered a lecture at ADA University, Azerbaijan’s top-tier educational institution entitled "Geopolitics of the Balkans and How it Relates to the Caucasus”.
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Vuk Jeremić lectures at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna
At the invitation of the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, one of the most prestigious and oldest schools on the European continent, CIRSD President Vuk Jeremić delivered a lecture entitled “(Geo)politics of the Balkans: The Revenge of History”, on February 7th, 2023.
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Prof. Sachs: “Sanctions against Russia ineffective and contrary to international law”
CIRSD had the privilege to host one of the world’s brightest minds and most famous economists – Prof. Dr Jeffrey Sachs in a live discussion titled "The winter of Our Discontent".
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Central Asia: The Age of Reform
The Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD) co-organized a conference on December 7, 2022, titled “Central Asia: The Age of Reform” at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, one of the most prestigious and oldest (1754) schools in Europe.
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