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Abstract:
This talk will explore the ongoing student and citizen protests in Serbia and how they have challenged the country’s increasingly authoritarian regime. The horizontal and decentralized nature of Serbia’s student movement is situated in the context of its rejection of corruption and authoritarianism, and its demands for the rule of law, democracy, and accountability. The discussion will also address the government’s attempt to portray the student movement as a “color revolution,” situating this narrative within broader regional and global patterns of protest delegitimization. Drawing on research conducted within the Horizon Europe project Empowering the Geopolitical EU in the Eastern Neighborhood and the Western Balkans (Geo-POWER-EU), the talk will showcase findings related to public perceptions of Serbia in an increasingly geopolitical Europe, the challenges of its precarious foreign policy hedging since the beginning of the Russia–Ukraine war, and issues related to economic (inter)dependence and corrosive capital, which significantly affect domestic politics and the troubling dynamics of state capture.
Speakers:
- Filip Ejdus is a scholar of International Relations, with a research focus on international security. The core of his research revolves around the question of how identity, memory, and emotions affect security dynamics in world politics. In addition, he has studied international interventions, civil-military relations, security sector reform, regional cooperation, geopolitics, neutrality, peace-building, extremism, and social mobilization. He is currently full professor of security studies at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade.
- Marko Kovačević is an Assistant Professor of International Security at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Political Science. His research and teaching focus on international relations theory, critical security studies, European security, small states, and academic writing. His PhD (2021) examined identity-role construction in the foreign and security policies of small states at the UN, with a focus on Yugoslavia, Serbia, and Croatia. His recent work explores regional security cooperation in the Western Balkans and Eastern European candidacies for elected UN bodies.
This talk is free and open to the public.
This event is organized in partnership with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Belgrade, and the Serbian Educational Alliance.
