Her Excellency the Ambassador of Slovenia Božena Forštnarič Boroje lecture
Her Excellency the Ambassador of Slovenia Božena Forštnarič Boroje will give a lecture on the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council in 2021.
Tuesday, November 16, 11:30 – 12:30, on MS Teams platform
Ambassador Božena Forštnarič Boroje headed the Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2016-2018) prior her current appointment to Poland. She began her diplomatic carrier within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2004, where she also served as a head of International Law Department (2015), Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Ankara (2012-2015) and Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Canberra (2005-2009). Prior joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she worked at the Office of the Prime Minister (2003-2004) and at the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs (1999-2002).
Ambassador Forštnarič Boroje holds a university and master degree in law from the Law Faculty of the University of Ljubljana. She speaks English, German and Croatian/Serbian.
Ambassador Božena Forštnarič Boroje presented credentials to the Polish President Andrzej Duda on 12 September 2018.
Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Poland is non-residentially covering also Republic of Lithuania, Republic of Estonia and Republic of Latvia. Ambassador Božena Forštnarič Boroje presented credentials to President of Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė on 24 October 2018, to President of Republic of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid on 8 November 2018 and to President of Republic of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis on 21 November 2018.
Prof. Steven Livingston public lecture-discussion “Are Social Media Platforms Uniquely Responsible for Democratic Backsliding?”
Since the 2016 Brexit referendum and the US presidential election, there’s been an explosion of books and articles hoping to explain the decline of liberal democracy. One common explanation involves social media algorithms. The priorities of the social media behemoths are shaped not by a sense of collective civic responsibility or by a regard for democratic principles but by an insatiable appetite for financial growth and domination. The astronomical sums of revenue generated by the platforms rest on a business model that Shoshana Zuboff likens to a manufacturing process. She states that surveillance capitalism “unilaterally claims human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioral data [which] are declared as a proprietary behavioral surplus, fed into advanced manufacturing processes known as ‘machine intelligence’, and fabricated into prediction products that anticipate what you will do now, soon, and later.” To extract behavioral surplus, user attention must remain fixed on content, and nothing holds attention like fear and loathing. Users are in this way taken progressively deeper into a digital world of conspiracy theories and hate. Livingston argues that this explanation of democratic decline is accurate, but only to a point. It fails in its overemphasis of technology as a sole causal factor. Much of the “computational propaganda” literature to appear since 2016 is ahistorical and inattentive to alternative explanations. It fails to consider the social, political, and economic context that influences the reach of algorithmic amplification of extremist content. Yet policy and law makers in the United States and Europe tend to focus on platform regulation, on the technologies themselves, when searching for solutions. The concern here is that in diagnosing the problem in technical terms, solutions will fall short. Furthermore, “content regulation” by Western democracies might offer more authoritarian states a way to justify far more draconian regulatory controls.
Open lecture: Strategic autonomy, European military and other initiatives – what is the future of EU foreign and security policy?
Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy together with Faculty of Humanities invites to an open lecture/discussion with Nicolas Tenzer, 20 10 2021, V. Putvinskis str. 23 – 310: Strategic autonomy, European military and other initiatives – what is the future of EU foreign and security policy?
Discussions about potential European strategic autonomy have been gaining momentum in recent years and especially intensified after the trilateral AUKUS agreement between the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Australia. Is the European Army just a beautiful idea or an inevitable future scenario? How does the US – Chinese rivalry impact the EU’s foreign and security policy? We will try to find an answer to these and many other questions in an open lecture/discussion with French political analyst, academic, publicist and editor – Nicolas Tenzer.
Nicolas Tenzer – graduated from École normale supérieure, Sciences-Po Paris and École nationale d’administration (ENA), he has a Master degree in History. Former adviser to the French Minister of Economy and Finance, he was investigator at the Accounting Court and Head of Department in Strategic Planning Commission (Prime Minister’s Office). He served as head of a special mission on international issues for the French government. He is the co-founder, former chairman and CEO, and now honorary chairman of Initiative for the Development of French Expertise Abroad in Europe and Worldwide (IDEFIE). He has been member of the board, CFO, and then executive president of Aspen Institute France (2010-2015). He wrote three official reports for the French government: The New Challenges for the Public Service: How to Address Them?; A New Organization for European and International Policies in France; and International Expertise: The New Heart of Diplomacy and Development Policy in the 21st Century: Tools for a French Strategy of Influence.
Chairman of the Center for Studies and Research on Political Decision (CERAP) and the publisher of the review Le Banquet (1992-2015), he is guest professor at Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA, Sciences-Po), ENA Paris, and France’s Institute for Advanced Studies on National Defence.
Since May 2021, he is the publisher of Desk Russie, a bi-monthly newsletter on Russia and countries of the former Soviet space.
He has been visiting professor at foreign universities (U.S., Canada, Serbia, South Korea, Poland, etc.) and guest speaker at many international conferences on security and international issues. He is the author of 22 books, including Political Philosophy; The World in 2030. The Rule and the Disorder; and France Needs Others, and lastly Resisting Despair in Confrontational Times (with R. Jahanbegloo, Har-Anand Publications, 2019). Most of his recent pieces deal with European and security issues, Ukraine, Russia, Middle-East, and US foreign policy. He regularly appears in leading newspapers worldwide and TV and radio talk-shows.
He is the owner of the leading strategy blog, launched in June 2021, Tenzer Strategics https://tenzerstrategics.substack.com/
On-line Discussion on EU Public Diplomacy and Media Narratives
The Faculty of Political Science & Diplomacy organized the on-line discussion on EU Public diplomacy and Media Narratives. During the workshop the main results of Jean Monnet Project Youth Opinion and Opportunities for EU Public Diplomacy: Youth Narratives and Perceptions of the EU and EU-Ukraine Relations in Ukraine and the three Baltic States (E-YOUTH) were presented.
Workshop programme:
Ukraine through a Baltic Lens and Images of the Baltic States in the Eyes of the Ukrainian Youth and Media
The key presenter and project leader Prof. Natalia Chaban is a Jean Monnet Chair and Director of Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum, Department of Media and Communication, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Ukrainian Youth on Ukraine-Baltic Relations. Results of the Survey.
Dr. Iana Sabatovych, Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Lithuanian Youth Perceptions of Media Narratives on Ukraine and EU: the Evidence from 2017 and 2020.
Dr. Gintaras Šumskas, assistant professor at Vytautas Magnus University and the research director at Vilnius Institute of Policy Analysis.
On-line Discussion on EU Public Diplomacy and Media Narratives
The Faculty of Political Science & Diplomacy invites to join the on-line discussion on EU Public diplomacy and Media Narratives. During the workshop the main results of Jean Monnet Project Youth Opinion and Opportunities for EU Public Diplomacy: Youth Narratives and Perceptions of the EU and EU-Ukraine Relations in Ukraine and the three Baltic States (E-YOUTH) will be presented.
Workshop programme:
Ukraine through a Baltic Lens and Images of the Baltic States in the Eyes of the Ukrainian Youth and Media
The key presenter and project leader Prof. Natalia Chaban is a Jean Monnet Chair and Director of Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum, Department of Media and Communication, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Ukrainian Youth on Ukraine-Baltic Relations. Results of the Survey.
Dr Iana Sabatovych, Public Diplomacy and Political Communication Forum, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Lithuanian Youth Perceptions of Media Narratives on Ukraine and EU: the Evidence from 2017 and 2020.
Gintaras Šumskas, assistant professor at Vytautas Magnus University and the research director at Vilnius Institute of Policy Analysis.
Discussion and Q & A session.
Event date: August 27th, 12:00
Please follow this link to enter the meeting.
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Graduation Ceremony
22 06 2021, 2:30 p.m. (Great Hall, S. Daukanto str. 28) will be a graduation ceremony of Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy.
Diplomas will be awarded to graduates of the following programs:
Future Media and Journalism
Diplomacy
Diplomacy and International Relations
Integrated Communication
World Politics and Economics
Politicas Studies
Sociol – political Critique Studies
Contemporary European politics
International Policy and Development Studies
Administration of State institutions
Public Administration
Public Communication
Vytautas Magnus University appreciates how important the graduation ceremony is for every student, especially the bachelor’s degree graduates, who will receive a higher education diploma for the first time in their lives. In light of this, the university seeks to ensure that the memories of the celebration are vivid and preserved for many years to come.
Regrettably, the celebration will not be open to everyone, the way it was before. Taking into account the quarantine situation declared in the entire country due to the threat of the spread of COVID-19, to ensure the safety of the university’s community and their relatives, this year VMU graduate ceremonies will be a bit different than usual.
Vytautas Magnus University’s diplomas will be awarded to the graduates in VMU spaces. However, relatives and friends will be able to congratulate and take pictures with the new alumni outside. They will be able to watch the diploma award ceremony itself live at vdu.lt/diplomai on their smartphones and other devices.
Due to the strict requirements of the appropriate disinfection and preparation of academic dress (gowns) for their continued safe use, we will not be able to provide them for all VMU graduates. Therefore, it has been decided that gowns will be worn only by the university’s bachelor’s degree graduates, who will celebrate their first-ever academic graduation ceremony.
We encourage all graduates to bring personal protective equipment. All participants of the graduation ceremony are required to wear medical masks or respirators.
We hope to see you soon at this milestone event, where everyone is filled with joy and a sense of pride after successfully completing an important stage of their lives.
Nevertheless, the graduates who are unable to attend the graduation ceremony will be able to receive their diploma at their faculty (in five workdays after the ceremony), or at the Department of Studies (after this time period ends).
Prof. R. van Voren public lecture “Society and the Individual: on Collaboration, Resistance and Compliance”
Prof. Robert van Voren in his public lecture “Society and the Individual: on Collaboration, Resistance and Compliance” uses his own “career” as human rights activist to explore the boundaries between the positioning of the overwhelming majority of any population – compliance – and the two “extremes”: resistance, or collaboration. In the course of time much of his writings have focused on the crossroads between mental health and human rights and the reasons why individuals on one hand become active participants in mass murder and genocide, and on the other find the courage to say “no” and bear the consequences. He explains how in the course of time his rather black-and-white views mellowed and gradually developed into one of “shades of grey”, realizing that judging afterwards and from outside is very easy but taking decisions on the spot and in times of turmoil is often a very complicated and painful affair. As the German politician and former East-German dissident once said: “There are real perpetrators and real victims, guilty ones and innocent ones and then in between the many others, we – who lived there, busy getting by, more or less decent, more or less clever, more or less cowardly or brave.”
The public lecture will be live streamed because of COVID-19 restrictions on 21st of May, 2021 at 1:00 p.m.
You are welcome to attend the public lecture via YouTube
AABS 2021-2022 Grants and Fellowships
The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) offers various grants and scholarships to increase the quality and dissemination of research and other information about Baltic studies.
We are now accepting proposals for our Birnitis, Grundmanis, Saltups, Emerging Scholars, and Dissertation grants and fellowships for the academic year 2021-2022.
Dissertation Grants for Graduate Students
AABS invites applications for grants of up to $4,000 to support doctoral dissertation research and write-up in any field of Baltic Studies. Funds may be used for travel to research sites, equipment, duplication or other needs as specified.
More info: https://aabs-balticstudies.org/grants-fellowships/dissertation/
Research Grants for Emerging Scholars
AABS invites applications for research grants of up to $6,000 in any field of Baltic Studies.
More info: https://aabs-balticstudies.org/grants-fellowships/emerging/
The Aina Birnitis Dissertation-Completion Fellowship in the Humanities for Latvia
The Aina Birnitis Scholarship supports a year of research and writing to help advanced graduate students in the humanities in the last year of Ph.D. dissertation writing. The fellowship provides a $21,000 stipend for one year plus $1,000 for university fees.
More info: https://aabs-balticstudies.org/grants-fellowships/birnitis/
Mudīte I. Zīlīte Saltups Fellowships
AABS invites applications for Short-Term Study or Research Grants for up to eight weeks of study in the United States with a maximum stipend of $10,000.
More info: https://aabs-balticstudies.org/grants-fellowships/saltups/
Jānis Grundmanis Postgraduate Fellowship
The Jānis Grundmanis Postgraduate Fellowship, established in the memory of Dr. Jānis Grundmanis, is an annual fellowship of $20,000 for graduate study in the United States.
More info: https://aabs-balticstudies.org/grants-fellowships/grundmanis/
The application deadline for grants and fellowships for the academic year 2021-2022 is February 1, 2021.
Award notifications will be made in April 2021.
The project The Emergence of New States in Eastern Europe in 1918
The project The Emergence of New States in Eastern Europe in 1918 Lessons for Entire Europe (TENSE), implemented by WiseEuropa, was completed in March 2020. It was a project that focused on the process of building nations after 1918 in Eastern Europe. The project aimed to increase knowledge in a region characterized by common features of processes presenting nations as a system of connected vessels and show the differences between them, placing them in a broader European context. In order to achieve allproject goals, there were established a consortium gathering various actors from Eastern Europe varying from local administration through think-tanks and academia up to journals which published a report and series of articles on the post-First World War nation-building processes in the Eastern Europe and their relevance for current Europe. They were based on a regional approach to the region, trying to extract the main common elements of this period. The main message of these publications was transformed into a public exhibition that was presented in all participant countries and in Brussels in order to reach out to a broader audience in Europe. As part of the project, there were organized open debates with the participation of local experts, scientists, and journalists to stimulate citizens to acquire knowledge in the area covered by the project. There were also published series of publications in widely recognized and well-known Europe-oriented magazines that are available throughout the European Union. The TENSE project also brought together European experts focused on nation-building processes to enrich their research on regional impact in their home countries through the European context of these events and many common points. He also contributed to the creation of a scientific network that influenced public debate in the European Union and later after the project. As part of the project, an exhibition presenting the political situation in Eastern European partner countries was also prepared, which wasshown during debates organized as part of the project. As part of the project, meetings were held debates and presentation of the exhibition on the subject of the project in the following countries:
1) 20th March 2019, in Warsaw, Poland,
2) 25th April 2019, in Kaunas, Lithuania,
3) 10th June 2019, in Riga, Latvia,
4) 16th September 2019, in Tallinn, Estonia,
5) 3rd October 2019, in Pori, Finland,
6) 4th February 2020, in Brussels, Belgium.
International Diplomats’ and Experts’ Discussion on Europe’s Future
VMU Department of Regional studies of the Faculty of Political Science and diplomacy cordially invites to the round table international discussion “European Union after 2019 Parliamentary elections and the approval of the Commission: The New perspective”.
The diplomats and experts will discuss the new European perspective and directions in the context of Brexit and formation of the new Commission cabinet. Will Europe succeed in EU renewal? How will it look like the new European perspective without the United Kingdom? Does the increased number of euro-skeptical political forces in the European Parliament make an impact on EU decision making? What are the expectations of citizens in different EU member states and candidate countries?
The event took place on the 24th of February, 2020, at V. Putvinskis st. 23 – 311.
Participants of the round table discussion:
H.E. Mrs. Claire Lignières-Counathe, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of France Republic to Lithuania;
Proffesor emeritus Mr. Alpo Rusi; served as Finland‘s ambassador to Switzerland and foreign affairs advisor to Finnish president M.Ahtisaari, also senior advisor of the UN General secretary and coordinator for Sarajevo summit (1999) and deputy coordinator of the Stability pact for Western Balkans (1999-2000);
Dr. Mladen S. Mrdalj, professor of international relations and comparative politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina International Burch university and Boston‘s „Northeastern University“;
Dr. Robertas Pogorelis, Press Officer of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Lithuania;
The moderator of the event dr. Sima Rakutienė is Associate professor of European studies and political science, Head of the Department of Regional studies of Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania.
The event is organized as part of the project „Representation of Lithuania‘s interests and citizens in the European Parliament“ results funded by the Research Council of Lithuania (project No. S-LIP-19-65).
Contacts for more information- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sima Rakutienė; el. paštas: sima.rakutiene@vdu.lt
