Vesko Garčević
Professor of the Practice of International Relations; Interim Director, Center for the Study of Europe
Vesko Garčević served as the Ambassador of Montenegro in Brussels (NATO) and Vienna (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe – OSCE and other International Organizations). He was a Montenegrin Ambassador to Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. During his diplomatic career he held important positions at the challenging political time of the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and democratic transition of Montenegro. After Montenegro regained independence in 2006, he served as the first Montenegrin Ambassador to Austria and the OSCE. He has outstanding knowledge of multilateral issues, especially in the field of European Security.
Ambassador Garčević participated in prestigious international conferences on security such as German Marshall Fund’s Brussels Forum, Munich Security Conference and Halifax International Security Forum. With his qualifications he contributed as the panelist to many conferences and seminars about European security, security of South East Europe and Western Balkans. He also participated in many high-level meetings, including NATO Summits, UN General Assembly meetings and ministerial conferences. He was interviewed or quoted by numerous internationally renowned media outlets such as BBC, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Voice of America etc. He participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program in 2004 and was awarded Honorary Citizen Certificate by the State of Texas.
His article ‘Montenegro and the OSCE’ was published at the Institute for Peace and Research and Security Policy, University of Hamburg, Yearbook 2007.
He wrote a book chapter about small states diplomacy Small States: From Intuitive to Smart Diplomacypublished in ThePalgrave Handbook of Diplomatic Reform and Innovation. In the book, 40 scholars and practitioners from 30 countries critically analyzed current practices of diplomacy and proposed practical steps that might make diplomacy and innovation more effective.
He co-authored a book about the relations between Serbia and Montenegro: Montenegro and Serbia: A Velvet Divorce?(Bloomsbury Academic) which will be released in February 2025. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the often divergent history between Serbia and Montenegro in the tumultuous period between 1988 and 2023.
Ambassador Garčević’s areas of expertise include multilateral diplomacy, European security, EU enlargement and NATO open door policy, democratic transition in Eastern and South-East Europe, the Western Balkans, and diplomacy of small states in global affairs.
