Foreign Policy Research Institute A Nation Must Think Before it Acts PDT Year in Review – 2013

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PDT Year in Review – 2013

2013 was a banner year for the Project on Democratic Transitions. We owe great thanks to our scholars and supporters for their contributions to PDT’s growth. As we begin 2014, we look forward to building on the strong foundations laid down over the past year. 

Here are a few major highlights from 2013:

Staffing

In 2013, seven new scholars joined the Project on Democratic Transitions, including:   

These new scholars bring tremendous academic and professional experience to PDT. Their regional specialties include the South Caucasus, Iran, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Collectively they have over 35 years of experience managing democracy and governance programs at the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute, the Eurasia Foundation and other leading organizations. PDT scholars are sought out for their expertise: scholars spoke at a variety of think tank events in the US and abroad. Team members‘ analyses and commentaries have been featured in a variety of publications such as Foreign Policy and the National Interest. PDT scholars were invited to comment on television and other media as well this year.          

Events

In winter and spring 2013, PDT held two well-attended FPRI public events, featuring Columbia University’s Lincoln Mitchell and Thomas de Waal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, respectively. These were followed by a smaller, in-house seminar on June 17 to review the PDT’s goals and working hypotheses, with PDT alumnus Mitchell Orenstein as the external discussant and Alan Luxenberg, Michael Noonan, and Tally Helfont as in-house FPRI commentators.

In March, PDT’s Nino Japaridze spoke on a panel about Georgia-Russia relations at a conference at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis & Resolution.

In April, Michael Cecire took part in an FPRI discussion panel on the Boston Marathon bombings where he commented on the history and politics of the North Caucasus region. Also in April, Cecire joined a discussion panel event on Turkey-Azerbaijan-Georgia trilateral relations sponsored by the Jamestown Foundation and hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.

In February, Ambassador Basora made a presentation at a major Czech and Slovak bilateral conference in Prague assessing 20 years of post-communist experience since Czechoslovakia’s 1993 “Velvet Divorce.” In November 2013, he made a presentation on the state of post-communist transitions at the Prague IIR’s annual foreign policy conference in. He intends to publish a revised version of his comments as an E-note in early 2014. And in October 2013, Ambassador Basora made a presentation at FPRI’s History Institute in Philadelphia regarding patterns of democratization in a globalizing world. 

FPRI Publications in 2013

E-Notes

Orbis

  • Georgia’s 2012 Elections and Lessons for Democracy Promotion
    by Michael Cecire, April 2013
  • Can the Post-Communist Democracies Survive a Continuation of the Euro-Crisis? 
    by Adrian A. Basora, April 2013 

Geopoliticus Blog

External Publications in 2013

PDT Interviews with the Media