Please click here to download the IEPAS2020 Conference Programme
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The 7th International Conference on Eurasian Politics and Society was organised by CESRAN International, Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, and OBSERVARE on 24-25 September 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal.
The conference hosted 11 scholarly panel sessions, 1 Keynote Speech session, 2 roundtable panel discussion sessions, 1 book discussion session, and opening/closing sessions.
IEPAS2020 started with the welcome addresses of Professor Jose Amado Da Silva (Rector, UAL), José Guilherme Victorino (UAL’s Administrator), Professor Ozgur Tufekci (Director-General, CESRAN International), Professor Luis Tome (Scientific coordinator, OBSERVARE-UAL), and Luís Nuno Rodrigues (Director of CEI-IUL). This was followed by the keynote lecture of a distinguished scholar, Professor Richard Sakwa (University of Kent).
In the first roundtable panel discussion session, chaired by Luís Nuno Rodrigues (Director of CEI-IUL), Professors Andrea Carteny, Bruno Cardoso Reis, Luis Tomé, Marlene Laruelle presented their contemporary research on “Impacts of Covid-19 on Greater Eurasia”.
The book discussion session featured Dr Sharifullah Dorani’s scholarly monograph, “America in Afghanistan: Foreign Policy and Decision Making From Bush to Obama to Trump” (I.B. Tauris, 2019).
In the scholarly panels, in total 65 papers were presented by 73 participants. The conference ended with a closing ceremony and a post-conference evaluation meeting.
You may reach the Panels’ youtube videos through the links below:
Opening session and Prof. Richard Sakwa’s Speech
M01 – Panel: Trans-Regional Relations in Inner and Outer Eurasia
M02 – Panel: Changing State Structures in Eurasia
M03 – Panel, Media in Domestic and Foreign Affairs
M04 – Panel; Consolidation and Deterioration of Democracy in Eurasia
M05 – Panel: Socio-Political Challenges for Established Political Orders
M06 – Panel: Transnational Religious Fundamentalism in Eurasia
M07 – Panel: Internal and External Rivalries on Eurasian Politics
M08 – Panel: Great Power Politics in Search for New World Order
M09 – Panel; Enduring Conflicts in Eurasia
M1O – Panel: Neighbours of the EU: What is Wrong with it?
Panel Discussion: Impacts of Covid-19 on Greater Eurasia
Panel Discussion: NATO’s Challenges In View of the Future Strategic Concept & Closing Session
Prof. Richard Sakwa
Prof. Richard Sakwa joined the University of Kent in 1987, was promoted to a professorship in 1996 and was Head of School of Politics and International Relations between 2001 and 2007, and in 2010 he once again took over as Head of School until 2014. While completing his doctorate on Moscow politics during the Civil War (1918-21) he spent a year on a British Council scholarship at Moscow State University (1979-80), and then worked for two years in Moscow in the ‘Mir’ Science and Technology Publishing House. Before moving to Kent he lectured at the University of Essex and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prof. Sakwa is an Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES) at the University of Birmingham and since September 2002 a member of Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences.
Professor Marlene Laruelle
Marlene Laruelle, Ph.D., is an Associate Director and Research Professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES), Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University. Dr Laruelle is also a Co-Director of PONARS (Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia), Director of the Central Asia Program at IERES and a researcher at EUCAM (Europe-Central Asia Monitoring), Brussels. Dr Laruelle received her PhD in history at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures (INALCO) and her post-doctoral degree in political science at Sciences-Po in Paris.
Professor Helena Carreiras
Helena Carreiras is the current director of the Portuguese National Defense Institute. She has been an Associate Professor at ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute, where she served as Dean of the School of Sociology and Public Policy between 2016-2019. She holds a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute in Florence. Between 2010 and 2012 she was deputy director of the Portuguese National Defense Institute and between 2018-2019 held the position of Vice-President of the Institute for Social and Public Policies at ISCTE-IUL. She is also the vice-president of the Research Committee on Armed Forces and Conflict Resolution of the International Sociological Association (ISA) and served as president of ERGOMAS (European Research Group on Armed Forces and Society) for the period 2016-2019. Her research interests are in gender and society, armed forces, civil-military relations, security and defense and research methodology. Her work has focused on gender integration in military institutions and gender aspects of international security. She is the author of Gender and the Military. Women in the Armed Forces of Western Democracies (Routledge, 2006) and co-editor of Researching the Military (Routledge, 2016), Qualitative Methods in Military Studies. Research Experiences and Challenges (Routlege, 2013) and Women in the Military and in Armed Conflict, (Vs Verlag, 2008).
Professor Andrea Carteny
Andrea Carteny received his PhD in History of Europe and works as Associate Professor of International Relations’ History at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he leads the International Cooperation Center with Mediterranean Eurasia Sub-Saharan Africa CEMAS.
He is a scholar on nations’ studies of Eastern Europe and Eurasia; his main topics are about nation-building processes, national minorities, nationalisms in the Eurasian and Mediterranea areas. He gives master courses of International History of Nationalisms and Identities at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, of History of Euro-Asian Relationships at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Sociology and Communication Sciences; he is Doctoral College’s member of a PhD program in “History of Europe” at Sapienza University (Department of History Anthropology Religions Art Spectacle, SARAS).
Professor Hüseyin Bağcı
Professor Hüseyin Bağcı is the President of the Turkish Foreign Policy Institute (FPI), since early 2020.
He is a Professor of International Relations at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, where he acts as the Chair of the International Relations Department for about a decade.
Hüseyin Bağcı received his PhD in Political Science from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Bonn in In 1988. He was a guest researcher at the German Society for Foreign Affairs (DGAP) in Bonn, and Senior Fellow at the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI) in Bonn and the Landesverteidigungsakademie und Militarwissenshaftliches Büro des Bundesministeriums für Landesverteidigung in Vienna. Prof. Bağcı is a member of IISS in London and Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Brussels, Belgium, and Associate Researcher at OBSERVARE-Observatory of Foreign Relations, Lisbon-Portugal. Prof. Bağcı has been visiting Professor at the University of Bonn, University of Rome-La Sapienza-Italy, University of Lublin-Poland, Humboldt University Berlin-Germany, and Autonoma University of Lisbon-Portugal.
Prof. Bağcı has published several books and a large number of articles on Turkish Foreign Policy and Turkish-German relations. Prof. Bağcı is a famous TV and Radio Commentator in Turkey, and is widely quoted also by the national and international press.
Professor Maria Raquel Freire
Maria Raquel Freire is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies and Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra. She is the Coordinator of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of Coimbra.
She is also Visiting Professor in the Post-Graduate Programme in International Relations at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. She is a member of the Scientific Council for Social Sciences and Humanities of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and member of the European Science Foundation College of Expert Reviewers. Her research interests focus on peace studies, particularly peacekeeping and peacebuilding; foreign policy, international security, Russia and the post-Soviet space.
Professor Mark Meirowitz
Dr. Mark Meirowitz is a Professor at State University of New York Maritime College where he teaches American Foreign Policy, American History, Constitutional Law, and a graduate course in Ocean Politics and Law, among other courses.
He holds a doctorate in Political Science and is also a lawyer.
He lectures and writes on international relations issues, including with respect to Turkish Foreign Policy and Turkish-US Relations, as well as on China-US Relations. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the law of the sea. He has presented at various international conferences, including the IEPAS 2019 conference held at the Universidade Autonoma de Lisboa (UAL), and is a member of the International Scientific Committee of IEPAS. He recently gave a lecture on the South China Sea for the Observare Asia-Pacific Conference, and also serves as a referee for Janus.Net.
Professor Nuno Severiano Teixeira
Professor Nuno Severiano Teixeira has served as Minister of Interior (2000/2002) and Minister of National Defense (2006/2009) of the Portuguese Government. He was the Director of the National Defense Institute (1996-2000).
He holds a PhD from the European University Institute, Florence (1994).
He is currently Director of the Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Full Professor of International Relations at NOVA University, Lisbon.
He was Visiting Professor at Georgetown University (2017-2019), Senior Visiting Scholar at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies European University Institute, Florence (2010), and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for European studies, University of California, Berkeley (2004).
He has published extensively on History of International Relations, Military History, Security and Defense Studies. His latest book is The Portuguese at War. From Nineteen Century to the Present Day, Sussex University Press, Sussex, 2020.
Professor Rafael Calduch Cervera
Professor Calduch concluded his studies in Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Sociology in 1974 at Complutense University of Madrid. At this university, he obtained a PhD in Political and Economic Sciences in 1979.
Dr Calduch has a Diploma in Higher Military Studies from Centro Superior de Estudios de la Defensa Nacional (CESEDEN) since 1996. He has received the Aeronautical Merit Cross awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Defense in 2001.
He started as a professor of International Relations at the Complutense University in 1974 and since 2000 is a senior professor of Public International Law and International Relations at the same university.
Since 2014 has been a professor in the Master in Defense and International Security that is given with Escuela Superior de las Fuerzas Armadas to officers of the Headquarter Staff Course.
Dr Calduch has directed 23 doctoral theses that have received the highest evaluation. He has written five books and more than 40 scientific papers and chapters of books.
Professor Calduch was a congressman at the Spanish Parliament during the Xth legislative period in 2015.
Other Members of the Co-organisers and Partners
Professor Luis Tomé
Luis Tomé is Professor at the Autonoma University of Lisbon-Portugal, where he is currently Director of the Department of International Relations and the research unit OBSERVARE-Observatory of Foreign Relations. He has also been Visiting Professor at the Portuguese Military University Institute, the National Defense Institute and the Higher Institute of Police Sciences and Homeland Security, as well abroad at La Sapienza University of Rome-Italy, Academy of Social Sciences and Technology of Angola, East Timor National Defense Institute, and Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara-Turkey.
From November 2015 to October 2017, Prof. Luis Tomé was Special Adviser for International Relations and Fighting Terrorism of the Portuguese Minister of Home Affairs. Previously, he was a NATO-EAPC Researcher for two years (author of the 2000 report “Russia and NATO’s Enlargement”), and Advisor to the Vice-President of the European Parliament (1999-2004).
Prof. Tomé earned a PhD in International Relations from Coimbra University, a Masters in Strategy from the Technical University of Lisbon, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Autónoma University of Lisbon. His main areas of research and expertise are International Relations, Geopolitics and Security Studies, with a particular focus on Euro-Atlantic, Asia-Pacific and Eurasia regions.
He is the author and co-author of a dozen books and numerous articles and essays. Prof. Luis Tomé has been a regular speaker at high-level conferences and workshops in the country and abroad, and a frequent commentator on security and international politics at the media.
Professor Luis Valença Pinto
General (Rtd; Army). In his military career, among many other assignments, he was Chief of Defense Portugal, Chief of the Army, Army Logistics Commander, Director of the National Defense Institute, National Military Representative at the Supreme Allied Headquarters, Commander of the Engineer School, and Defense Counsellor in the Portuguese Delegation to NATO. He was also a Professor of Strategy and Geopolitics at the Institute of Military High Studies. As the Chief of Defense of Portugal (2006-2011), he integrated the Military Committees of NATO and the European Union. After the conclusion of his active service in the Armed Forces, he started an academic activity. He is a Professor at Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa and a researcher on its research unit, OBSERVER. Simultaneously he is also a Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and a researcher at Research Centre of the Institute for Political Studies (CIEP). He has published more than eighty studies, book chapters and articles on Security and Defense issues. He is a regular speaker in universities and other institutions in Portugal and abroad. He is actively engaged and holds responsibilities in several cultural and social organizations.
Professor Bruno Cardoso Reis
Bruno Cardoso Reis is currently Deputy Director of the Center for International Studies/Centro Estudos Internacionais, ISCTE-IUL, where he is also a Professor in the History Department. He was from 2011-2016 a research fellow at ICS-University of Lisboa. He has worked as an external advisor at the National Defence Institute of the Portuguese Ministry of Defence (IDN), having been part of the working group for revising the Portuguese National Security Concept. He is currently an advisor to the Portuguese Minister of Defence. He holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London, has an M.Phil. in Historical Studies from the University of Cambridge and an M.A. in Contemporary History from the University of Lisbon. Among his recent publications are Decentering the Cold War: Portuguese policy of Decolonization and Détente towards Angola and Mozambique (1974-1984), Journal of Cold War Studies (2019); [with R. Egnell] (2018), Counterinsurgency in H. Meijer, M. Weiss (Eds.), The Handbook of European Defence Policies and Armed Forces. (Oxford: Oxford U.P. He comments on international politics and security on Twitter (@ bcreis37) and on Radio Observador is part of the weekly program on European affairs Café Europa.