Office of University Communications 

Missouri State hosts international conference

SPRINGFIELD — Missouri State University will host an international conference on “East-Central Europe at the Crossroads: Russian, American and European Union Interests and Policies.” The conference will be held from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 30 and from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Dec. 1 in Plaster Student Union, Room 313.

Many high-ranking government officials and academic leaders from Australia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Macedonia will debate several diverse global topics during the two day conference.

“This is the second conference that Missouri State is co-sponsoring in a series of three conferences which resulted from an agreement between Missouri State and the Slavyani Foundation, Bulgaria,” said Dr. Beat Kernen, political science department head at Missouri State. “The first conference took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2005, and was organized by the Slavyani Foundation of Bulgaria. The third conference will take place in St. Petersburg, Russia, and will be organized by the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow, Russia, and St. Petersburg State University in St. Petersburg, Russia. The main focus of the Springfield conference is to focus on global aspects affecting Eastern Europe.”

Topics to be discussed during the conference include:

·        America and NATO vs. Russia: Competition for Influence and Geo-Strategic Advantage

·        European Union Enlargement: Perspectives from new members and EU policies toward new members

·        Russia and European Union relations

·        Building democracy and a market economy in East-Central Europe

Academic leaders from the global community who are attending include: Dr. Peter Shearman, professor of political science at the University of Melbourne, Australia; Dr. Rayna Terzieva-Petrova, general secretary of the Slavyani Foundation of Bulgaria; and Dr. Janos Barabas, president of the Josef Attila Foundation of Hungary.

Participants from Missouri State University will include: Kernen, who will be the conference chair and moderator; Dr. Dennis Hickey, professor of political science and director of the Master’s in International Affairs and Administration program, who will give a presentation on U.S. foreign policy towards Russia and Europe; and Vladislava Petrova, a political science visiting faculty member, who will be the executive assistant and a presenter at the conference.

The Missouri State political science department and the Political Science Graduate Student Association are sponsoring the event. Co-sponsors of the conference are the Slavyani Foundation of Sofia, Bulgaria, and the Gorbachev Foundation of Moscow, Russia. The conference is free and open to students, faculty, staff, alumni and the public. For more information visit the web site at http://www.polsci.missouristate.edu/EastCentralEurope