Lukes Presents at Conference Commemorating Velvet Revolution
Igor Lukes, Professor of International Relations and History at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, spoke at a conference in Prague, Czech Republic on June 24, 2019 organized by the Parliament of the Czech Republic to commemorate the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Lukes presented a paper entitled “The Year 1989 as a Miracle in the History of the Cold War.” Lukes argued that membership of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary in the European Union and NATO (the Visegrad Four, V4) doesn’t represent a natural state of affairs, is fragile and should be treated as such by the four countries’ political elites.
Igor Lukes writes primarily about Central Europe. His publications deal with the interwar period, the Cold War, and contemporary developments in East Central Europe and Russia. His work has won the support of various other institutions, including Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays, the Woodrow Wilson Center, IREX, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1997 Lukes won the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching at Boston University.