The Balkans and the Middle East: Contrasts and Parallels

Announced by the University of Pittsburgh:

Please join the Harriman Institute for The Balkans and the Middle East: Contrasts and Parallels. Moderated by Tanya Domi (Harriman Institute).

The Harriman Institute is delighted to convene a discussion with some of the top analysts who have researched and worked on the Middle East and Balkan regions. This is a rare discussion that is often never addressed in a public forum about the parallels and comparisons between the Middle East and the Balkans. Both regions are dominated by persistent “frozen conflicts” that are centered around ethnicity and religious identities and their requisite political and civil affiliations. These regions are also engaged in power international relations that include partnerships between and with the United States, Russia, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Israel, now post elections with the return of a right-wing Bibi Netanyahu to government and Serbia lled by autocrat Aleksandar Vucic who persists in illiberal politics are two of most dominant personalities in either region. Iran has been in turmoil with the most significant push back since the revolutionary guard uprising in the late 1970s by compulsory hijab wearing of women citizens who have continued to protest the government crackdown on women for nearly two months that intersects with similar, echoes in the Balkans about gender based sexual violence and femicide. We will probe and discuss these issues and more in what portends to be a fascinating discussion.

Speakers
Reuf Bajrović, Vice President at the US-Europe Alliance in Washington DC; Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Dahlia Schiendin, Political analyst and a public opinion expert

Kurt Bassuener, Co-founder and Senior Associate of the Democratization Policy Council

Harun Karčić, Journalist and political analyst

Dijana Mujkanović, Ph.D. Candidate at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) at the University of Pittsburgh; Visiting Research Fellow at the Post-Conflict Research Center in Sarajevo and the Psychology of Intergroup Conflict and Reconciliation Lab (PIRC) at the Hebrew University in Israel

Moderated by Tanya Domi, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia SIPA; Harriman Institute Associated Faculty