Ambassador Garčević Covers Global Affairs in the Eastern Mediterranean in Panel and Workshop
Ambassador Vesko Garčević, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, participated in a workshop-conference on security in the Eastern Mediterranean titled Recalibrating the Geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 21st Century. The two-day event, held on November 28–29, brought together academics, diplomats, and practitioners for three thematic panels, round-table discussions, and two keynote addresses in a retreat-style setting focused on the region’s core challenges, including demography and migration, as well as energy and democracy.
Along with Professors Dimitrios Skiadas of the Fletcher School, Elizabeth Prodromou of Boston College, Dimitrios Tsarouhas of Georgetown University, and Symeon Giannakos of Salve Regina University, Ambassador Garčević served as a panelist on the session Statecraft, Diplomacy, and Security in Post-Conflict Societies.
In his initial remarks, Ambassador Garčević characterized current global affairs as a period of geopolitical recession, manifested through: a) dysfunctional multilateralism and a crisis of international organizations; b) a normative crisis marked by the erosion of international law and foundational principles, including the prohibition of the use of force and respect for fundamental human rights; c) the prevalence of narrow national politics and transactional approaches; d) the waning of global leadership; and a growing shift of power toward the global East and South, with which Western actors continue to struggle.
He then examined how these global trends shape political and security developments in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. Ambassador Garčević further argued that contemporary conflicts are evolving in form and character, and that the Eastern Mediterranean should prepare for increasingly asymmetric, human-centered security threats in the decades ahead. Many of these challenges, he noted, will stem from climate change—forced migration being one of the most acute examples.
Vesko Garčević is a professor of the practice of international studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and the director of the Center for the Study of Europe. An expert on multilateral issues, Garčević is the co-author of Montenegro and Serbia: A Velvet Divorce? (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025) which explores the divergent past between Serbia and Montenegro between 1988 and 2023. To read more about his work and accomplishments, visit his faculty profile.