Issue No.
13368
CSIS chair sponsor Dr Lavrentis Lavrentiadis with former US national security advisor and CSIS trustee, Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski
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The first director of the Lavrentis Lavrentiadis Chair in Southeast European Studies at CSIS, Janusz Bugajski (L)
Katerina Lavrentiadis with Deputy Culture Minister Angela Gerekou (R).
Lavrentis Lavrentiadis addresses the audience
Petros Efthymiou, Yiorgos Kalatzis, Mimis Androulakis, Dimitris Avramopoulos and Alexandros Zavos
Zbigniew Brzezinski with US Ambassador to Greece Daniel V Speckhard.
GREECE has the unique “opportunity to become a regional leader and guide for historic changes”, said entrepreneur Dr Lavrentis Lavrentiadis as he announced on December 7 the establishment of a chair in Southeast European Studies at the influential US think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
As sponsor and benefactor of the new CSIS chair bearing his name, Lavrentiadis referred to the emergence of new opportunities in Southeast Europe, which “is finally treading on the path of political and social stability as a precondition for economic development, prosperity and security of its peoples”. He underscored the need to augment the “reserves of intellectual capital” in order to take advantage of these opportunities, noting that there is a “close connection” between entrepreneurship and the formulation of policy.
Lavrentiadis also voiced his conviction that successful businessmen bore a “substantive entrepreneurial responsibility” that could contribute to mutual understanding and trust internationally. This thought inspired him to take the initiative of working with Washington DC’s leading think tank for global strategy issues.
“CSIS, as the premier international policy institute, will ensure that the newly established chair provides fresh impetus for the political, economic and business development of Southeast Europe,” said Lavrentiadis. The principal aim of his initiative was to utilise the geopolitical position of Greece to boost its leadership role in the wider Balkan region, as it is going through its transformations. “Greece and its neighbours can help promote the entire region as a crucial component of European Union integration as well as a secure part of the Euro-Atlantic community,” he said.
Among the chair’s primary targets, according to Lavrentiadis, will be the provision of specialised consultancy to government executives, policy makers and businesspeople in the EU as well as in the US, while generating “crucial political discussions at important decision-making centres around the world”.
The inaugural chair holder, Janusz Bugajski, also serves as the director of the CSIS New European Democracies Project and as a senior fellow with the CSIS Europe Programme. Considered one of Washington’s foremost Balkan experts, he has served as a consultant on Central and East Europe for several US government agencies and private institutions.
Bugajski has authored fourteen books and numerous articles in leading journals and newspapers in the US and Europe, and chairs the South Central Europe programme at the US State Department’s Foreign Service Institute.
Regional signpost
“The Lavrentis Lavrentiadis Chair will provide Washington with a comprehensive understanding of developments in Southeast Europe and the challenges still facing the region,” said former US national security advisor, CSIS trustee and senior counsellor Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was the keynote speaker at the chair’s inauguration in Athens.
“The initiative of Dr Lavrentiadis,” noted Brzezinski, “arises from his vision and sense of responsibility regarding the future that we increasingly share on a global scale in the pursuit of mutual understanding and communality of interests.
“It is a token of the growing importance of Europe and specifically of Greece that this CSIS process has been enlarged by Dr Lavrentiadis’ generous and visionary initiative to focus specifically on Southeast Europe, a place of enormous geopolitical significance and sensitivity,” he stressed.
Hints on Turkey and Skopje
The speeches and panel discussions by CSIS heavyweights Brzezinski, Bugajski, former US ambassador to Turkey Marc Grossman and CSIS senior research fellow Heather Conley, politely avoided bringing up sensitive topics of Greek foreign affairs that might taint the friendly atmosphere of the Lavrentiadis Chair inauguration. The panellists dealt with the new geopolitical challenges to transatlantic (EU-US) relations confronting the Barack Obama administration, including the collective defence priorities of Euro-Atlantic institutions or the importance of the Lisbon Treaty in EU-US cooperation.
Nevertheless, reporters took the chance to query the impressive lineup of US strategic thinkers on their views about the diplomatic relations of Athens with Ankara and Skopje.
Regarding Turkish aspirations to become a strategic energy hub between Asia and Europe, Brzezinski said “this is understandable from the point of view of Turkey’s interests, but it also has to be perceived from the point of view of the relationship between Europe and Turkey, which is a delicate one”. The key point, he stressed, is the need of Europe to keep its sources of energy as diversified as possible.
“From the Turkish point of view, there is a temptation to take advantage of that to maximise the financial and political benefits of such an arrangement,” Brzezinski noted. “But Turkey also plays a role in the consolidation of geopolitical diversity in the former Soviet Union, especially in relation to Central Asian countries and that is to the collective benefit of all,” he added.
For his part, Marc Grossman told the Athens News that Europeans must “stop for just a moment and recognise” the role the EU has played in the “astonishing accomplishments and domestic changes which Turkey has undergone in the past 15-20 years as a result of its desire to become a member of the European Union”. It is therefore important for Europeans to see how “Turkey’s full accession to the EU would be a powerful incentive for Turkey’s effort to meet the requirements and obligations of EU membership”.
Asked about the dispute between Athens and Skopje over the latter’s use of the name ‘Macedonia’, which is also the name of its neighbouring northern Greek region, Brzezinski mused: “I have enough problems helping to decide the names of my children and grandchildren, I don’t need to get involved in the question of how Macedonia ought to be defined. I think that is a responsibility of the Macedonians themselves, but they also have to take into account the externalities of such a decision. I know that people outside Macedonia have a special interest in how Macedonia is named and I’m going to leave that problem to the people concerned.”
Lavrentiadis interceded at this point to emphasise that Brzezinski’s reply clearly refrains from taking sides in the name dispute. “We certainly don’t want to communicate anything that can wrongly affect the feelings of Greek public opinion towards CSIS,” its benefactor said. “Our goal through [sponsoring] this chair is to assist Greece in the promotion of its national interests by finding friends who can help us in our foreign policy.”
Profile
The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) provides strategic insights and policy solutions to decision-makers in government, international institutions, the private sector and civil society. A bipartisan, non-profit organisation headquartered in Washington, DC, CSIS conducts research and analysis and develops policy initiatives that look into the future and anticipate change.
Since its founding in 1962, CSIS has grown to become one of the world’s preeminent international policy institutions, with more than 220 full-time staff and a large network of affiliated scholars focused on defence and security, regional stability and transnational challenges ranging from energy and climate to global development and economic integration.
ATHENS NEWS 30/08/2010, page: 14-15
