Garčević Discusses International Involvement in Eastern Mediterranean During IEMS Panel
Ambassador Vesko Garčević, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, took part in a panel titled “The Role of International Organizations in the Eastern Mediterranean” on Saturday June 27, 2020. The event served as a wrap up for a week long conference – hosted by the Institute of Eastern Mediterranean Studies (IEMS ) at Emmanuel College, the Constantine G. Karamanlis Chair in Hellenic and European Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Institute of International Relations – on Eastern Mediterranean security studies.
The panel also featured Dr. Nicolas Prevelakis of Harvard University, Dr. Dimitris Keridis of Panteon University, and Despina Afentouli from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Public Diplomacy Division.
Examining the role of the European Union (EU) and NATO in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa in the years to come, Garčević stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the European economy. The regional economies are forecast to contract by 4.7%, with recessions in nearly all countries.
The panel went on to discuss how the environment in the EU is not conducive to enlargement or robust engagement in countries that belong to the EU periphery. They argued that the main interest of the EU would not be enlargement and more engagement in the regions like the Balkans or the Eastern Mediterranean, but stability on its periphery.
A recording of the panel will be available here once it is processed by Emmanuel College.
During his diplomatic career, Ambassador Vesko Garčević dealt with issues pertinent to European security and NATO for almost 14 years. In 2004, he was posted in Vienna to serve as Ambassador to Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He had been a Montenegro’s Ambassador to NATO from 2010 until 2014 and served as a Montenegro’s National Coordinator for NATO from 2015 until he joined the faculty at the Pardee School. Learn more about him here.