ESI in Alpach, Austria: Debating the UN, Turkey and European Enlargement

Shlomo Avineri, Terje Rod-Larsen, and Albert Rohan

ESI's Gerald Knaus was invited to be a guest speaker at the ERSTE Foundation Community Alpbach Meeting 2010 taking place in parallel with the Political Symposium of the European Forum Alpbach.

On 30 August, Gerald gave a presentation at the panel discussion "The United Nations: Construction and Reality". The panel included Mona Juul, Deputy Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations, New York, Terje Rod-Larsen President, IPI - International Peace Institute, New York, Sheel Kant Sharma, Secretary General, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Kathmandu, and Thomas Mayr-Harting, Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations, New York.

On 31 August, Gerald gave his second presentation at the panel entitled "Turkey as a regional player". The panel included Shlomo Avineri, Professor of Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Recurrent Visiting Professor, Central European University, Budapest, Aydin Findikci, Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Ahmet Nuri Yurdusev, Professor, Department of International Relations, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, and Albert Rohan, Secretay-General ret., Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, Vienna.

ESI's Kristof Bender was also at the event and, among other things, interviewed former Croat Prime minister Ivo Sanader for ESI's web portal on European enlargement.

The Alpach Forum was widely covered in Austrian media:

• tt.com, Christian Jentsch, "Muskelspiele am Bosporus" ("Power play at the Bosphorus") (1 September 2010)
• Die Presse, Christian Ultsch, "Diplomatie: Das türkische Dilemma" ("Diplomacy: The Turkish dilemma") (31 August 2010)
• Die Presse, Jutta Sommerbauer, "Vereinte Nationen: Wie die UNO sich selbst blockiert" ("United Nations: How the UN blocks itself") (30 August 2010)