The Central European University
Nationalism Studies Program
cordially invites you to a lecture by
Florian Bieber
University of Graz
Is 2011 the Arab 1989?
What the revolutions of Eastern Europe tell us about chances for democracy in the Arab world
Thursday, March 31 at 6 p.m.
Popper Room, Monument Building
The uprisings across the Arab world since early 2011 have been likened to numerous revolutions, from 1848 in Europe to the revolution of 1979 that ousted the Shah in Iran. The end of Communist regimes in 1989 still remains the main event to compare the revolutions in Arab countries to. The talk will discuss similarities and differences and not only focus on the revolutions themselves, but also on the aftermath: What are the odds that countries in the Arab world not just overthrow the old order, but also become vibrant democracies? The successes and setbacks across the post-Communist world can provide for a useful guide on what one might expect in the Arab world.
Florian Bieber is a Professor of Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz. Previously, he was a Lecturer in East European Politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations of the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. From January to May 2009, he held the Luigi Einaudi Chair at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and in Spring 2010, he was a visiting fellow at LSEE – Research on South Eastern Europe at the London School of Economics. He is the editor in chief of Nationalities Papers . He studied at Trinity College (USA), University of Vienna and Central European Univeristy (Hugary) and received his M.A. in Political Science and History and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Vienna, as well as an M.A. in Southeast European Studies from Central European University (Budapest). Between 2001 and 2006, he has been working in Belgrade (Serbia) and Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina) for the European Centre for Minority Issues. Florian Bieber is also a Visiting Professor at the Nationalism Studies Program at Central European University, at the Regional Masters Program for Democracy and Human Rights at the University of Sarajevo and the Interdisciplinary Master in East European Studies, University of Bologna. He has been an International Policy Fellow of the Open Society Institute and taught at the Balkan Studies Program of the IDM. He is the associate editor of Southeastern Europe as well as being on the editorial board of Ethnopolitics and Südosteuropa. He published articles on institutional design, nationalism and politics in South-eastern Europe in Nationalities Papers, Third World Quarterly, Current History, International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, International Peacekeeping, Ethnopolitcs and other journals. He is the author of Nationalism in Serbia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milošević (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2005, in German) and Post-War Bosnia: Ethnic Structure, Inequality and Governance of the Public Sector (London: Palgrave, 2006) and edited and co-edited four books on South-eastern Europe. His website and blog is at http://fbieber.wordpress.com