Kosovo is widely expected to declare independence from Serbia in the near future. This distinguished panel of experts will discuss the ramifications of this move on Europe, Russia, the United Nations and the US, and explore the potential for a new East-West Crisis- World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C.
Bio
Janusz Bugajski
Janusz Bugajski is the Director of East European Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Formerly a senior research analyst for Radio Free Europe in Munich, he has worked as a consultant on East European affairs for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Defense, the International Republican Institute, the Free Trade Union Institute (AFL-CIO), the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX), and BBC television in London.
Bugajski's most recent publications include Ethnic Politics in Eastern Europe: A Guide to Nationality, Policies, Organizations, and Parties (M.E. Sharpe, 1994) and Nations in Turmoil: Conflict and Cooperation in Eastern Europe (Westview, 1992 and 1995). The later was selected by Choice as an outstanding academic book. He has published articles in numerous journals including Orbis and the National Interest and also contributes to various domestic and foreign newspapers.
In 1994, he was selected for inclusion by Gale Research in Contemporary Authors, and in 1998, he received a Distinguished Public Service Award from the U.S. Department of State, USAID, USIA, and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in recognition of his contribution to international affairs. Bugajski holds an M. Phil. in social anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Michael Haltzel
Michael Haltzel is Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
Dr. Haltzel capped a distinguished career in public service as senior foreign policy advisor (1994-2005) to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-Delaware), Ranking Member (Chairman 2001-03) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as Democratic Staff Director of the Subcommittee on European Affairs of the Committee.
Dr. Haltzel went to the Senate in 1994 from the Library of Congress and from 1985 to 1992, he served as Director of West European Studies of the Woodrow Wilson Center at the Smithsonian Institution. He previously taught Russian and German History at Hamilton College and was Vice President for Academic Affairs at Longwood College. In 1975-78, Dr. Haltzel helped launch the Aspen Institute Berlin as its first Deputy Director.
Dr. Haltzel has been awarded the Grand Cross of Commander of the Order of Grand Duke Gediminas by Lithuania, the Star of Romania by Romania, the Knighthood of the Royal Order of the Polar Star by Sweden, the Officer's Cross Order of Merit by Hungary, the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver by Austria, and the Three Star Order by Latvia.
He received a B.A. magna cum laude with honors in history from Yale, an M.A. in Soviet Studies and a Ph.D. in history, both from Harvard.
Daniel Serwer
Daniel Serwer is the Vice President of the Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations at the United States Institute of Peace and the Centers of Innovation. He coordinates the Institute's efforts in societies emerging from conflict. He also leads the Institute's innovative programs in rule of law, religion, and peacemaking, economics of peace and conflict, media and conflict and diaspora contributions to peace and conflict.
Previously Mr. Serwer was an assistance research fellow at UNIDAR, was Danforth Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago and a National Science Foundation Fellow in the Program in History and Philosophy of Science at Princeton University.
Serwer served from 1994 to 1996 as a U.S. special envoy and coordinator for the Bosnian Federation, mediating between Croats and Muslims and negotiating the first agreement reached at the Dayton peace talks. From 1990 to 1993, he was deputy chief of mission and charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, where he led a major diplomatic mission through the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War.
Dimitri Simes
Dimitri Konstantin Simes is a foreign policy analyst and author who serves as president of The Nixon Center and publisher of the foreign policy journal The National Interest. In the 1970s, Simes was a noted Kremlinologist analyzing Soviet politics. Simes served as an informal policy adviser to Richard Nixon, who appointed him to lead the center. Simes was born in Moscow and graduated with an M.A. in history from Moscow State University. He immigrated to the United States in 1973.
Simes's writings include After the Collapse: Russia Seeks its Place as a Great Power (1999), Detente and Conflict: Soviet Foreign Policy 1972-1977, and Soviet Succession: Leadership in Transition. He has also written for newspapers and journals, including The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy.
Simes has chaired the Center for Russian and Eurasian Programs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and was the director of a Soviet-focused program at Johns Hopkins University. He has also taught at Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley.
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