On 4-5 December 2017 CIRSD President Vuk Jeremic attended the prestigious annual Berlin Foreign Policy Forum, organized by the Körber-Stiftung in partnership with the German Foreign Ministry.
The opening remarks were delivered by Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's foreign minister, whose wide-ranging speech outlining German's vision of the world served as a clarion call for a clearly defined set of international priorities for both Germany and the EU. Gabriel underscored thay "China is the only country in the world to have a long-term strategic vision of its interests."
The main topics of this year's Berlin Foreign Policy Forum included the future of the European project, European and neighborhood security, a 'Westphalia" peace scenario for the Middle East and the Gulf, and nuclear security issues.
Vuk Jeremic was the keynote speaker at a special, invitation-only, off-the-record luncheon session of the Forum on the topic "A New Great Game in the Western Balkans?" which was moderated by DIE ZEIT's diplomatic correspondent Michael Thumann. In his remarks, Jeremic spoke of the rise of autocracy in the region and its implications for the region's prospects for EU accession.
Other featured speakers at the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum included EU Security Commissioner Julian King; New York Times Chief Diplomatic Correspondent Steven Erlanger; Chairman of the Russian Duma's Committee on Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachev; former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen; French intellectual and Horizons author Dominique Moisi; President of the Hudson Institute Kenneth Weinstein; Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Mohammad Kazem Sajjadpour; and Special Security Adviser to South Korea's President Moon Chung-in.
The Berlin Foreign Policy Forum also featured the launch of the inaugural issue of the Körber-Stiftung called the BERLIN PULSE. One of the keynote contributors to this important new European journal is Vuk Jeremic. His article, entitled "Opportunity or Autocracy?," discusses the consequences of the EU's increasing preference for stabilitocracy over "veritable democratic reforms in the Western Balkans." Such choices, Jeremic underscores, are not only morally questionable, but "run contrary to the EU's long-term interests."
Other featured authors in the BERLIN PULSE included Condoleezza Rice, Jens Stoltenberg, Timothy Garton Ash, Wolfgang Ischinger, Jean-Marie Guehenno, Alexey Pushkov, Yan Xuetong, Shashi Tharoor, and Parag Khanna.
Global Preventive Diplomacy Initiative Launched in New York Ahead of UNGA 80
New York, NY — The Global Preventive Diplomacy Initiative (GPDI) was launched at an exclusive event organized by the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD) on the top floor of New York’s iconic MetLife Building, bringing together diplomats, philanthropists, business leaders, academics, and thought leaders for a conversation on the future of conflict prevention and international cooperation. The launch came just days before the opening of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which annually brings together heads of state and government for the High-Level General Debate — making New York the world’s diplomatic capital.
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Eighty years after its founding, the UN finds itself at a critical juncture. Its purpose is on trial, and its mission urgently requires recalibration. The world it inherited from the scorches of the Second World War no longer exists, yet many of the organisation’s practices remain rooted in a bygone era – out of sync with today’s realities and detached from those it was created to serve.
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CIRSD President Vuk Jeremić to SINA Finance: Multilateralism Will Evolve, Not Disappear
Below is the full text of the interview:
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