Liridon Lika interviendra à la conférence-débat sur le bilan de dix ans d'indépendance du Kosovo, organisée dans le cadre du festival Let’s Art Kosovo par Siréas, Bruxelles, le samedi 15 décembre, 2018

LET'S ART KOSOVO

À l’occasion de la Journée internationale des migrants du 18 décembre, l’asbl Siréas, en collaboration avec Le Senghor, met le focus sur un pays, qu’il soit d’exil ou d’accueil. Pour sa 9ème édition, le festival Let’s Art fait halte au Kosovo, dernier né des pays européens.

Après avoir étudié le journalisme, Ferdi Limani a consacré sa carrière au photojournalisme. Une passion qui l'a emmené de la France à la Turquie en passant par le Moyen-Orient. Mais c'est dans son pays de naissance, le Kosovo qu'il est finalement retourné vivre. Il y a observé les deux visages de la jeunesse locale. Côté pile  : des jeunes gens idéalistes qui n'ont pas perdu espoir en un meilleur avenir. Côté face  : une jeunesse qui se vit prisonnière de son propre pays et dont l'horizon se résume à un écran de smartphone. Il s'est également intéressé aux milliers de personnes encore portées disparues. Peut-être font-elles partie des corps retrouvés dans des charniers et qu'il faut encore identifier  ? Des familles attendent une réponse à cette question qui ne semble plus intéresser grand monde.

http://www.ferdilimani.fr
http://www.agencelejournal.com

Durant le vernissage, l'animation sera assurée par Grupi Vatra

Venez découvrir le voyage onirique de Zoé et Léo à travers les richesses culturelles et historiques de la région. La bande dessinée sera offerte aux participants à cette rencontre.

Avec la participation de Nicolas Wieërs (Balkan Trafik festival & 1001 valises), Sanja Marinkovic (chargée de communications stratégiques Balkans occidentaux du Service Européen pour l'Action Extérieure) et Carine Borel (chargée de mission diplomatie culturelle du Service Européen pour l'Action Extérieure).

Une initiative de l'Union Européenne et de l'asbl 1001 valises/ Balkan Trafik! à l'occasion de l'Année européenne du patrimoine culturel.

https://www.bozar.be/fr/activities/140892-balkan-trafik-2019

Comment construit-on une démocratie moderne ? Le docufilm de Léa Todorov suit quatre travailleurs de l'OSCE qui tentent de répondre, au quotidien, à cette question dans un Kosovo placé sous tutelle internationale. Pas facile de concilier idéalisme et réalité d'un pays né suite à une guerre sanglante dans une région qui sent encore la poudre. La projection sera suivie d'une conférence-débat sur le bilan de dix ans d'indépendance au Kosovo. La question de l'influence de la tutelle européenne sur le processus de construction du pays sera notamment abordée en compagnie de M. Liridon Lika - chercheur au Center for International Relations Studies (CEFIR) du Département de Science politique de l’Université de Liège (ULiège)- et Arben Fetai – membre du comité directeur du Parti social-démocrate du Kosovo. 

http://www.zadigproductions.fr/2012/08/02/sauver-lhumanite-aux-heures-de-bureau/

Samedi soir, place à la fête ! Et avec Dren Abazi et son Zig Zag Orchestra ce n'est pas qu'un voeu pieux. Depuis 2012 et le succès de l'album « Afterparty », le musicien et son groupe sont la formation kosovare la plus en vue. Habitué à faire danser le public balkanique, le groupe-phare de Pristina vient nous présenter ses morceaux qui mêlent les mélodies issues de la riche tradition musicale locale, à l'énergie des rythmes balkaniques et klezmers. Le tout est saupoudré généreusement d'inspirations rock, jazz ou encore ska. Une manière, exubérante faut-il le préciser, pour ses musiciens de premier plan de faire passer un message de tolérance et de solidarité.
Dren Abazi: Voix, Guitares - Ljuan Osmani: Basse - Rinor Ukimeri: Accordéon, Mandoline... - Bekim Rexhepaj: Clarinette - Arian Veliu:Trompette - Vedat Hasani: Cordes, percussions et batterie.

https://www.facebook.com/ZigZagOrchestra/

Réservations au Senghor – 366 chaussée de Wavre, 1040 Bruxelles
www.senghor.be tel 02 230 31 40/ mail: info@senghor.be

CALL FOR PAPERS, "The Western Balkans at the crossroads of European integration and emerging powers", CEFIR - ULiège, deadline December 14, 2018

Call for papers

International conference

 The Western Balkans at the crossroads of European integration and emerging powers

Center for International Relations Studies (CEFIR)

Faculty of Law, Political Science and Criminology

Liège University (ULiège)

Thursday, 28 march 28, 2019

Liridon Lika, researcher at CEFIR, ULiège

The Center for International Relations Studies (CEFIR) of the Department of Political Science of the University of Liège (ULiège) is launching a call for papers for an international conference entitled: The Western Balkans at the crossroads of European integration and emerging powers.

The Western Balkans region is currently composed of six states: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia. As part of this event, both the bilateral relations between the six countries of the Western Balkans and the triangular relations between the Western Balkans, the European Union (EU) and the emerging powers will be analyzed simultaneously.

The EU enlargement process has slowed down in recent years for reasons both internal and external to the Western Balkan countries and to the EU itself.

The financial and economic crisis in the EU between 2007 and 2014 affected the economies of the Western Balkans, particularly in areas of foreign direct investment (FDI), private finance and remittances. The overall bilateral political and economic problems of the Western Balkan countries combined with the political and economic setbacks of the EU and the ‘fatigue of enlargement’ have contributed to the creation of a relative power vacuum in the region. Meanwhile, emerging countries, such as Russia, Turkey, China or Saudi Arabia, are steadily increasing their presence in the region. The projection of their influence in the Western Balkans is to varying degrees and fields as diverse as political, economic, financial, commercial, military, cultural or religious.

Therefore, in the face of this changing international context, the EU and some of its Member States have raised awareness by recently launching several enlargement initiatives (the Berlin Process since 2014, a new enlargement strategy of the European Commission of 2018 or the Sofia Summit of 2018).

This conference aims to answer the central question of the challenges posed by the penetration of emerging powers in the Western Balkans for the EU’s deployment in this region. In other words, it aims to analyze the new international balance of power in the context of the diffusion of global power. This question comes in several sub-questions: what are the interests of the EU in the Western Balkans? What are the interests of the emerging powers in the region? How do Western Balkan countries position themselves in relation to the EU and the emerging powers? Does the assertive presence of emerging powers in the Western Balkans present challenges for European enlargement? Are the strategies of the EU and the emerging powers competing or complementary? This conference will try to provide answers to these various questions.

Calendar and practical arrangements:

We are waiting for your proposals for papers (maximum 500 words) and your biographies (maximum 200 words), by Friday, December 14, 2018, at the latest. They must be sent to Liridon Lika at the following address: Liridon.Lika@uliege.be

The proposals will be evaluated anonymously by the scientific committee.

The decision of the Scientific Committee will be communicated to you on Monday, January 14, 2019.

In case the communication proposal is accepted, we are waiting for the final contribution for Friday 1st March 2019.

A publication will flow from this event. All participants will have the opportunity to publish an original contribution – after positive external evaluation – in a collective book. Contributions must not exceed 35,000 characters (spaces included), Times New Roman, font size 12, line spacing 1.5.

The deadline for receipt of texts for the realization of a collective book will be Friday, May 31, 2019.

The conference will be held on Thursday, March 28, 2019 in the room “salle du Conseil” at the Faculty of Law, Political Science and Criminology of the University of Liège, Quartier Agora, Place des Orateurs 3, Building B31, Sart-Tilman, 4000 Liège (Belgium).

Additional Information:

Conference languages: French and English

Language of the publication: French

The communication of each speaker will last a maximum of 20 minutes, in order to leave about fifteen minutes to the discussant as well as to the assembly to discuss the contribution presented.

Scientific committee:

Afrim Krasniqi, Academy of Albanian Studies, Albania

Bashkim Iseni, Friborg University, Switzerland

Jacques Rupnik, Research Director, CERI, Sciences Po, France

Jean-Christophe Defraigne, University Saint-Louis – Brussels, Belgium

Kamal Bayramzadeh, University Paris XIII and Liège University, France and Belgium

Sebastian Santander, CEFIR, Liège University, Belgium

Vjosa Musliu, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Xhabir Hamiti, Prishtina University, Kosovo

Organizer

Liridon Lika, CEFIR, Liège University, Belgium

International Conference : "China’s future: domestic and international contradictions and challenges", BCSN, 20-21 June 2019.

International Conference 20-21 June 2019

China’s future: domestic and international contradictions and challenges

China is facing difficult challenges both at the domestic and international levels. The economic reforms started 40 years ago have radically transformed Chinese society. While they generated unprecedented economic growth, reduction of poverty and technological progress, they have also generated new contradictions and challenges in China and in its international relations.

At the domestic level, China is now facing growing environmental problems with rising human and economic costs. Demographic shifts raise the possibility of China getting old before getting rich, putting pressure on its welfare system and keeping China in the middle income trap. Domestic economic contradictions in the relationship between state and market leading to overcapacity and high levels of debt are weakening China’s growth prospects. Economic, demographic and environmental problems highlight the need to shift from extensive to intensive growth relying increasingly on knowledge, technology and robotics rather than on massive capital investment and cheap labour. At the same time, inequality and regional disparities continue to widen, generating political and social tensions in CCP’s core values. Corruption, state embezzlement, real estate bubbles and capital flight have been important threats to macroeconomic, social and political stability of China.

At the international level, China’s rising influence in the economic, political and cultural fields has reshaped international relations and global governance. But as China is turning into a global power, it faces new coalitions seeking to check its expansion through diplomatic, economic and even military means as they fear the impact of a rising China. China’s Belt and Rad may generate an acceleration of economic integration across the Eurasian continent and reshape existing international alliances but outside China it is often seen as an attempt to remake the international order in its own image. Existing multilateral economic institutions are being challenged by China’s growing financial resources, but also by the recent unilateralist stance of the US administration, generating worries in the international community of the rise of a confrontational G2 engaged in economic warfare.  While tensions exist between China, the US and other powers over access to energy and raw materials they also increasingly focus on technology, markets and the role of the state in the economy.

The purpose of this two-day conference is to bring together international academics and experts from different disciplines to assess the state of play of these current contradictions and challenges and their possible outcomes. The goal is to create networks of interdisciplinary research and to widen the scope of analysis of the participants by providing an insight into China’s current affairs from different perspectives and disciplines. It also aims to show the possible domestic and international links of China’s contradictions and challenges.      

DRAFT PROGRAMME

Thursday 20^th June

 Contradictions at the domestic level

• Panel 1: The demographic challenge: An aging China and its consequences on growth and the welfare system
• Panel 2: The environmental challenge: the consequences of China’s extensive growth and energy-mix on air, water, land and people
• Panel 3: The technological challenge: can China shift from an extensive to a knowledge-based intensive growth?
• Panel 4: The social cohesion challenge: rising social inequalities, corruption, tax evasion, sustainability of the welfare system and social stability
• Panel 5: The geographical divergence challenge: rising interprovincial and rural-urban divide in living standards and economic development
• Panel 6: The legitimacy challenge: the Party, corruption, inequality, centralization of power and China’s civil society
• Panel 7: The disintegration challenge: the central governments and the pressures from China’s localities and periphery (Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong-Kong)
• Panel 8: the long term view: contextualising China’s current domestic contradictions in a historical perspective

FRIDAY 21^st JUNE

Contradictions at the international level

• Panel 1: The challenge of energy and climate change from the perspectives of China and other key players
• Panel 2: The challenge of rising protectionism against Chinese commercial penetration and China’s responses
• Panel 3: The challenge of the insertion of China in the global financial system
• Panel 4: The geopolitical rise of China and the reaction of Asian neighbours
• Panel 5: The challenge of China to US global hegemony?
• Panel 6: The challenge of the adaptation of global governance institutions to China’s rise
• Panel 7: The challenge of acquiring technology and knowledge overseas
• Panel 8: The long term view: contextualising China’s current international contradictions in a historical perspective

Gabrielle W. Cusson, « EU-Brazil in Global Governance: the case of biofuels », CEFIR Working Paper, N° 6, December 2018, pp. 1-16.

New publication: Gabrielle W. Cusson, « EU-Brazil in Global Governance: the case of biofuels », CEFIR Working Paper, N° 6, December 2018, pp. 1-16.

Abstract:

In the broad framework of the international talks between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur regarding a potential trade deal, many sensitive issues have come up as obstacles to negotiation, such as agriculture and biofuels. As the main agriculture powerhouse in Mercosur, Brazil has made clear that the trade deal would pass only if the EU would accept more generous import quotas for several commodities, including bioethanol, which is derived mainly from the culture of sugarcane and corn-crops. It is used in a wide-range of products such as biochemicals, bioplastics, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, industrial products (solvents, paint) and, increasingly, as a biofuel for transport. Bioethanol, as an alternative and renewable energy, has the potential to meet some of the world’s energy needs, but its adverse social and environmental effects are considerable. Therefore, there is a need for better governance related to biofuel production, use, trade and cooperation.

However, Brazil-EU collaboration on biofuels has a deeper history on both bilateral and trilateral levels to promote biofuel production in underdeveloped countries. In this framework, environmental and social issues related to this specific agricultural production did not seem to engender the same kinds of debates. In a context where the EU-Brazil relationship on energy security and sustainable development is part of a political project aimed at consolidating their respective status as powers, it is relevant to reflect on the following question: How does this struggle affect the EU and Brazil’s power-seeking strategies?

The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate, in a critical perspective based on an alternative conception of power, how biofuel can be mobilized as a foreign policy tool in an important emerging area of global environmental governance, through the notion of norms ideas and material capacities diffusion. The analysis will cover a period of 11 years, going back to EU –Brazil’s first strategic partnership (SP) on renewable energy in 2007 to the more recent trade negotiations in 2018.  This article will focus on the EU-Brazil bioethanol relationship on interregional (EU-Mercosur) and the trilateral levels (EU, Brazil and Mozambique) and demonstrate how they can mobilize biofuel as a foreign policy tool. From a critical perspective, we will analyze the differences between the official discourse and the realities on the ground.

This sixth issue of CEFIR Working Paper 2018 is available as an attachment.

Ce sixième numéro de CEFIR Working Paper 2018 est disponible en pièce jointe.

About the author

Gabrielle W. Cusson is a PhD Candidate at the Liège University (ULiège) and a researcher related to the Center for International Relations Studies (CEFIR). She specializes on emerging powers’ South South cooperation strategy in the field of agriculture.

New one-year Master's programme in political science taught entirely in English, "Global Politics & Political Affairs", University of Liège.