The Heinrich Böll Research Group on

Risks of Exclusion and Strategies of Inclusion in an enlarged Europe

       cordially invites to the following panel discussion:

                   Exporting Democracy through Civil Society?

         European and American Democracy Assistance in the New East

with

                                        Marieluise Beck

                      (M.P. Bundestag, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)

Dr. Jörg Forbrig

(German Marshall Fund of the United States)

Monday, May 26th 2008

Olbers-Saal, Haus der Wissenschaft (Bremen City Centre, Sandstr. 3-5)

Start:  8 p.m.

The event will be held in English language, Entrance is free

Please download our comprehensive English description of the event here (in PDF)

Eine ausführliche Ankündigung der Veranstaltung können Sie hier herunterladen (in PDF).

For additional information on the event please contact Sebastian Büttner at

boell-groupgsss.uni-bremen.de

*******************

Background:

In the past two decades “tectonic“ political and societal changes have been taking place particularly in the Eastern part of Europe. After the end of Soviet Communism, Europe witnessed a new wave of nation-building bringing about new nation-states, new political regimes, new macro-political constellations, but also new battles and cruel conflicts amongst different ethnicities. However, whilst ten post-communist countries from Central and South-Eastern Europe were able to initiate far-reaching democratic reforms and integrate with the Western part of Europe in a surprisingly quick and relatively frictionless way, a whole range of states in the “New East“ captured in unstable political circumstances, misgovernment, and “semi-autocratic“ or “neo-authoritarian“ political settings.

Indeed, some countries beyond the Eastern borderline of the European Union, such as Belarus, Ukraine or Georgia, find themselves in a tricky situation: wedged between the new-emerging territorial order of the European Union and the Russian Federation – without much support from either of the two powers. Nonetheless, despite quite aggressive attempts of authoritarian governments to break down political opposition, there are segments of society in all of these countries constantly raising their voice for political change, democratic reform and European integration. Thus, in order to be effective, these groups are particularly reliant on external support.

The question arises, therefore, how and to what extent the pro-democratic opposition and civil society in Eastern Europe can be supported by Western societies. The most obvious way would be the use of official political channels, such as initiating visits of national and international delegations or of individual politicians and political parties. However, without broader European political support all these attempts might seem to be nothing more than symbolic politics. An alternative would be the influence of external non-state actors and civil society supporting bottom-up initiatives behind official political stages. Indeed, over the past decades, a whole industry of development agencies, interest groups and grant-givers has emerged travelling around the world promoting liberal values, democratic principles and civil society activities in conflict areas and reform countries. In this regard, in turn, questions of legitimacy and reliability always immediately arise: Who, in fact, are these actors, for whom and to which ends are they engaged in foreign countries and what type of values sets do they represent?  

These questions and many more will be addressed during a panel discussion with:

Marieluise Beck, Member of the Bundestag, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Bremen), since 2005 member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Bundestag. She has been concerned with questions of humanitarian aid and democracy support in Eastern Europe for many years.

Dr. Jörg Forbrig, Senior Programme Officer at the Bratislava office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, an independent American foundation promoting civil society initiatives and democracy around the world, and in the whole area of Central and Eastern Europe as well.

Both of the panellists will talk about the political situation beyond the Eastern borderline of the European Union, especially Belarus, Ukraine and Serbia, and in particular they will also address the role of external actors aiming at promoting democratic reform and civil society in these countries. Dr. Jörg Forbrig will speak about his personal experience and his professional involvement in Eastern European countries as a representative of an U.S. American foundation promoting democracy via grant-giving to civil society initiatives. He will also present some results of his recent publication on civil society and electoral change in Central and Eastern Europe. Marieluise Beck will share some of her impressions on the political situation in Belarus, Ukraine and Serbia from the perspective of official German (and/or European) politics and from her personal experience of many visits and engagements in these countries as both an official political delegate and party representative.

After these two presentations there will be enough space for the audience to raise questions to the panellists and to contribute to the overall discussion on the political situation in Belarus, Ukraine and Serbia as well as on the different approaches of external democracy support.
The discussion is free of charge and it is open to everybody. It will be held in English language in order to give all non-German speakers the opportunity to follow the presentations and to actively engage in the discussion.   

The event is organised by the Heinrich Böll working group “Risks of Exclusions and Strategies of Inclusion in an enlarged Europe“ of the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Scienes (^BIGSSS) with special support from the Heinrich-Böll Foundation (Berlin) and the University of Bremen.

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