Join us as our panel explore the shifting geopolitical organisation and strategies of the Balkans and the role of external actors such as Russia, China, and the European Union.

The COVID-19 outbreak, shifts in the global order, and rising tensions between great powers have brought new geopolitical dynamics into the Balkans. Against this backdrop, we will discuss these ongoing changes with a special focus on Serbia where parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place on 21 June. We will take a closer look at policies pursued by the great powers (USA, EU, China, Russia) in the region and analyse their agendas in a broader, global context. We will also identify existing dependencies and see how the involvement of major global actors in Serbia may evolve in the future. 

20:20 Visions: conversations on the future of democracy is a series of online discussions on current challenges to democracy faced by Central and Eastern Europe, hosted by LSE IDEAS and the Ratiu Forum.

Yu Jie is a Senior Research Fellow on China in the Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House. She is the former head of China Foresight at LSE IDEAS and remains an Associate at LSE IDEAS.

Sena Marić is Programme Manager and Senior Researcher at the European Policy Centre in Belgrade, Serbia. Sena focuses on the EU-Serbia relations, EU accession policy towards the Western Balkans and rule of law. Occasionally, she works as an external associate on research projects related to EU’s enlargement policy as well as migration and asylum policies. Sena holds MA in EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges and BA from the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade.

Maxim Samorukov is a fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center and deputy editor of Carnegie.ru. Before joining Carnegie in 2015, Samorukov worked for the independent news website Slon.ru for five years. He started as a correspondent and then became an editor and international columnist, covering topics including Russian foreign policy, Central Eastern Europe and its relations with Russia, Balkans, and the challenges of transitioning to democracy.

Bogdan Zawadewicz is a PhD candidate in political science at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (LMU).  Bogdan is also affiliated with LSE IDEAS, having been awarded the Mladena and Dianko Sotirov Visiting Fellowship in 2019. He recently served as a visiting fellow at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

Megan Palmer is Programme Manager of the Central and South-East Europe Programme, LSE IDEAS.

Event hashtags: #2020Visions #BalkanGeopolitics