Brussels: 1 July from 12.00 until 13.15 at Gallup House
In partnership with the European Fund for the Balkans, Gallup Europe is pleased to invite you to its latest Learn@Lunch event: “Balkan views of a multipolar world” to be held on Friday, 1 July from 12.00 until 13.15 at Gallup House in Brussels. A Balkan buffet lunch will follow the event.
Over the last fifteen years, the overwhelming presence of external actors in the Western Balkans has had a strong effect on the Balkan citizens’ perceptions of international organisations and the major world powers.
By asking questions about peoples trust and sympathies towards various countries and organisations, the Gallup Balkan Monitor (GBM) measures how these perceptions are shaping out in an increasingly multipolar world.
Given the multitude of recent events in the Western Balkans related to external involvement in the region (e.g. the ICJ opinion on Kosovo independence, the verdicts against Gotovina and Markac, the arrest of Mladic) the latest Gallup Learn@Lunch will be a timely occasion to investigate Balkan residents’ views of a multipolar world and to discuss how these relate to various policy initiatives undertaken by the powers engaged there.
The GBM’s rich and comprehensive findings on how Balkanites position themselves geopolitically include:
- Overall, the stance of Western Balkan residents towards International Organisations has been constantly improving over the past years
- Respondents with family abroad on average tend to think more positively of their relatives’ host country than their compatriots without family in that country
- Bosniak respondents in Bosnia and Herzegovina dissatisfied with the work of the International Community in the region tend to think much more positively of Turkey than those satisfied with it
- The satisfaction of Serbs in Serbia with the leadership of various world powers has worsened over the past years – this holds true even for the leaders of countries that have spoken out against Kosovo independence such as Russia and China.
These and other data relating to the mixed images of the outside world in the Western Balkans will be presented and discussed at the Gallup Learn@Lunch. After an introductory word from Igor Bandovic, Programme Manager of the European Fund for the Balkans, Gallup’s partner for the Balkan Monitor, Robert Manchin, Managing Director of Gallup Europe, will unveil Gallup’s latest data on the topic. We have also invited Svetozar Rajak, Lecturer in International History and Academic Director at the London School of Economics , to address the historical and geopolitical background to Balkan affiliations towards world powers. Dejan Jovic, Chief Advisor to the President of the Republic of Croatia will add a Western Balkan perspective on recent development in Balkan world views.
As seats are limited, please register before Tuesday, 28 June with Beatriz Preto: Beatriz_Preto@gallup-europe.be
Speakers’ bio
Igor Bandovic, Programme Manager
European Fund for the Balkans
Igor Bandovic has been with the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB) as a Programme Manager since 2008. Before joining the EFB, he worked as a researcher for the UNDP’s Regional Transitional Justice Programme. From 2002 to 2006, Igor was with the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights where his research priorities were human rights education, civil society, transitional justice, war crimes and nationalism.
His engagement in the civil society movement started in 1997, when he established Libergraf, the non-governmental organisation that dealt with public education, the promotion of human rights and civic activism. Igor has attended numerous courses and alternative education programmes at home, in Serbia, and abroad.
Dejan Jovic, Chief Analystto the President of the Republic of Croatia
Dr Dejan Jovic is Chief Analyst to the President of the Republic of Croatia and Special Coordinator of his Office.
He is Associate Professor of International Politics at the University of Zagreb and Lecturer in Politics at the University of Stirling, Scotland, UK. He received his PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE), and was Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
Dr Jovic’s book on the disintegration of Yugoslavia – “Yugoslavia – A State that Withered Away” – was published by Purdue University Press in 2009. His latest publications include a paper on Croatia’s accession to the EU in Chaillot Paper (No 126, June 2011), an article on early post-communist transition theories in Politicka misao (2010), the contribution of a chapter in Croatia in socialist Yugoslavia (1945-1991) and a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies (2010) on Croatian transformation from authoritarianism after Tudjman.
Svetozar Rajak, Lecturer in International History and Academic Director
London School of Economics
IDEAS Centre for the study of international affairs, diplomacy and grand strategy
Dr Svetozar Rajak is the Academic Director of LSE IDEAS, a centre for the study of international affairs, diplomacy and grand strategy at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Political Science. He is also Head of the Balkan International Affairs Programme.
Dr Rajak teaches Cold War history and the history of Eastern Europe and the Balkans at the Department of International History at LSE. He is also the LSE Academic Director of the LSE-Peking University Double Masters Degree in International Affairs.
Dr Rajak holds degrees in Economy and History and received his PhD in History from the LSE. Dr Rajak is the editor of the Cold War History journal.
Robert Manchin, Chairman and Managing Director
Gallup Europe
Robert Manchin is Chairman and Managing Director of The Gallup Organisation Europe, and is responsible for implementing the Flash Eurobarometer surveys for the European Commission. A professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, Robert is actively involved in a number of European graduate university programmes.
In 2009, Robert carried-out the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights’ Survey on Discrimination and Victimization---a 27-country face-to-face survey among minorities in the EU. He is also currently fielding for the second time the European Working Conditions Survey--a face-to-face survey of over 30,000 individual workers across Europe on behalf of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
Among on-going activities, Robert is also responsible for the Gallup World Poll in Europe, the Euromed Monitor and the Balkan Monitor and continues to develop key programmes such the Soul of the City, and measurement tools for entrepreneurship and public services performance as well as, social policy, economic, quality of life and well-being indicators.
He has a degree in Economics from the Karl Marx University of Economics, in Sociology from MacMaster University and in Music from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. In 2006 he was elected to be the Deputy Mayor of Vallus, Hungary. Since 2000 he is the President of the Hungarian Smoke-free Association and since 1994 runs Foundation Europa Nova, promoting social innovations in local scale in Hungary and Croatia.
Robert is a member of ESOMAR and WAPOR.
You can download Invitation from here .
