Conferences and Workshops

   

Conference – „The Black Sea Region in the 21st Century: Regional and Functional Perspectives

On October 16-17, 2007 the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, in co-operation with the Austrian Institute for International Relations, the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, the Centre for Trans-Atlantic Relations (SAIS/Johns Hopkins University) and the University of Innsbruck hosted a two-day conference and public discussion: "The Black Sea Region in the 21st Century: Regional and Functional Perspectives".

The first day, organized within a closed working session, featured presentations on regional perspectives from the Black Sea littoral countries, trans-regional issues such as economic development, European energy security and regional conflicts and the roles of the EU and NATO.  The second day's half-session, in the form of a public discussion offered a wider audience the opportunity to elaborate upon the discussions of the opening day.

The conference was opened by Dr. Daniel Hamilton, Director of the Centre for Trans-Atlantic Relations, with first-day presentations by Temuri Yakobashvili (GFSIS), Rainer Freitag-Wirminghaus (Deutsche Orient Institute), Peter Havlik and Vasili Astrov (Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies), Anna Mateeva (London School of Economics), Anna Jonsson (Central Asia Silk Road Institute), Michael Emerson (Centre for European Policy Studies) and F. Stephen Larrabee (Rand Corporation).

Those presenting at the two-day event will subsequently author individual articles to be published in an edited volume by the same name.  A similar public meeting will take place in Washington, DC in September 2008 in order to further discuss Black Sea perspectives and to present the book.