Balkan Social Club

Much of my time and my working life has been consumed with the Balkans. But after a less than satisfying experience working in the region recently, I decided it was time to move on. So move on I was going to do at Columbia. Find a new passion, broaden my horizons.

But maybe there's no getting away from what really interests you. It all started with a course on Post Soviet States and Markets which I promised myself I wouldn't take. Too similar, move on, I told myself. But I found my way into the lecture anyway, hoping it would be rubbish and I would not need to go again.

But the professor was fantastic, of course, and I could see that there was no option but to take the course. It would act as a soothing counterbalance to Statistics class, I convinced myself. Fair's fair.

After the lecture, I spoke briefly with the professor and somehow ended up mentioning that I had a connection to the former Yugoslavia. "Oh, you should meet Gordon then!" By then the elevator had delivered us to the 15th floor and home of The Harriman Institute, of which the professor is the Director and Gordon the Assistant Director.

Gordon has a Balkan heritage too, though judging by his faultless accent, he grew up in America. He promised to put me on the Institute's mailing list and told me about some events he has planned. I tried to resist, but was secretly fascinated: a study group with former Prime Minister of Croatia Ivo Sanadar, a course on Yugoslav history, a lecture on Croatia and dealing with the legacy of the past, an event with the Prime Minister of Kosovo, a Balkans Summit Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria....and a Balkan Social Club.

So now I am writing articles on Balkan affairs, planning Balkan movie nights, music events, Slovenian wine tasting (it's happening next week in Greenwich Village), oh just all sorts.

I suppose you can take the girl out of the Balkans but...!

Learn at your peril

Most classes need not come with a health warning, but I've discovered one at Columbia that could do with a disclaimer. The class is a seminar on the "Palestinian and Israeli Security Dilemmas", taught by an enthusiastic and erudite professor who smiles more often than one might expect for someone teaching such a grave subject.

Last week she explained that the emphasis is on class participation, for which we will also be graded. Each week we are to read 3-4 articles and take it in turns to prepare short presentations. Sounds alright so far.

At 4.10pm the class commenced. By 4.30pm I was on the edge of my seat, my heart was racing and my palm were sweaty. Probably my face was red too. I could tell some of my colleagues were pretty fired up to: a girl who'd been serving in Iraq, another who'd worked for an NGO in the West Bank, a doctoral student in Jewish Studies and then, the most fired up of all, an Israeli citizen with some pretty vocal opinions.

I emerged from the class totally drained and my respect for the professor even greater. Throughout she had remained smiling, calm, the perfect moderator. Her face wasn't even pink. I walked out of the class with a Pakistani colleague and confessed that I was exhausted. "Me too", she said in a lovely accent, "and I think it's only going to get worse!"

To bike or not to bike

On Google Maps, sitting at home in the UK, it all looked so easy. No need to commute by subway, I will cycle to school from 72nd and Broadway to Columbia University - there's a bike path that takes me all the way there!

What Google Maps failed to indicate was the series of traffic lights that I would face on Central Park West. Should I risk going through a red, or wait with the cars? The man in the bike shop told he'd been cycling through reds for seven years and only been stopped three times. How's that for odds.

The other thing that Google Maps isn't so clear on is the small but very steep park at Morningside Heights that I would have to negotiate in order to reach school. Nor did it make me aware that I would have to cycle down Broadway to get back home, because Central Park West is a one way road.

Perhaps biking in New York was a touch over-optimistic.

Politics, American style

One thing that I’ve come to learn pretty fast since beginning a Master’s in Political Science at Columbia University, is that the American approach to the study of politics is radically different to the British approach. And not in a way that a History graduate would find particularly friendly. At least half of the graduate courses available to me, perhaps more, are heavily quantitative. I can chose between “Game Theory”, “Models for Panel & Time Series Cross-Section Data”, or how about “Multivariate Political Analysis”? Game theory sounds intuitively fun (it involves games, right?), but a preliminary scroll of game theory on Wikipedia convinces me early on that I would be best to avoid it like the plague.

Perusing the reading list for my class, “Theories of International Relations”, I suddenly feel much more at ease. Hobbes (tick), Kant (tick), Fukuyama (tick). At last, a comfort zone! There are some good professors at universities in the UK, the professor explains in his opening to the first class, but he’s never much cared for the British approach to political science. What he said next was a profound shock: British scholars emphasise ideas because the UK lacks military and economic might (‘the British army does, you know, a good job, for its size’…); American scholars emphasise economics and realism because the US is a hugely powerful country with hugely powerful capabilities and is forced to deal with ‘the reality’.

So, there it is, in a nutshell. I come from a little country with a little army that America could squash in a heartbeat, and this apparently also explains why I know nothing of game theory or calculus. Thank God for the special relationship…

The strange fascination with cupcakes

Am I missing something? Are cupcakes part of a healthy diet, a vital carb that I've been missing out on in Europe?

For most Brits, cupcakes are a distant memory. They remind us of birthday parties before we hit second didgets. But in America it is a whole industry. Everywhere you look there are cupcake shops. There are more cupcake boutiques in my neighbourhood than off-licences (liquor stores). In fact, I live a block away from the Magnolia Bakery, famous for featuring in Sex and The City, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5CJAXZxJXA

The photo above is taken at Dean & Deluca's, an upmarket food store that gives M&S Food a run for it's money. Actually, just after this photo was taken, I was told by a member of staff that taking photos of the cupcakes is prohibited. So, enjoy this picture I managed to smuggle out from the front line!

Kosovo PM addresses Columbia on eve of landmark UN resolution

Impeccably dressed, tanned, and looking surprisingly unburdened for the leader of a country with so many problems, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hasim Thaci, addressed a packed room of Columbia and SIPA students and faculty. The event took place on 8 September on the top floor of the International Affairs Building, with stunning views over a glistening New York skyline.

Gordon Bardos, Assistant Director of the Harriman Institute, introduced the Prime Minister. Thaci’s list of achievements is impressive enough to make any fresh faced MA student blush with inadequacy: first prime minister of independent Kosovo, founding member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, MP for three consecutive terms (receiving more votes in the last election than any other leader). All this by the tender age of 42 and exuding a calmness and confidence to boot.

“The fight for freedom never ends”

Thaci’s speech spoke of his deep respect for the United States, Columbia University, and for higher education. It was a narrative that emphasised Eisenhower as president of Columbia University and deliverer of freedom in Europe. “Eisenhower liberated Europe. We in Kosovo completed the job that Eisenhower started...we have brought freedom to our part of Europe. Sixty five years on, the fight for freedom never ends”.

The Prime Minister was in New York ostensibly to deal with the UN General Assembly’s debate of a draft resolution on Kosovo’s future. This must be a tough task for a Prime Minister whose country is not represented at the UN. Neither China nor Russia – permanent Security Council members – has recognised Kosovo.

Belgrade gets busy

Serbia has been busy over the summer lobbying for the UN text to call on Serbia and Kosovo to renegotiate on Kosovo’s status. However, the recent opinion of the ICJ (which Serbia requested, and which found that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was lawful in terms of international law), has changed the game. There is no going back, no reintegrating Kosovo into Serbia.

After intense pressure from the EU to give up its resolution and to throw its weight behind an EU-sponsored resolution, Serbia relented. On 10 September, a UN General Assembly resolution was adopted which simply calls for “dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia”. It has been hailed as a milestone that paves the way for a new chapter in relations between the two countries.

"Serbia has lost some battles in Kosovo in history, but Kosovo has never been lost”

In Belgrade, former Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica, proclaimed, "Serbia has lost some battles in Kosovo in history, but Kosovo has never been lost. This government is on track to enter into history as the first and the only one that did everything to really lose Kosovo." Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremic, was hounded in the Belgrade press for conceding to EU pressure in New York, and for a while it looked like he might lose his job.

Serbia was seen to capitulate in the face of intense international pressure, but its unofficial prize is the acceleration of membership talks with the EU and the further consolidation of the de facto separation of Northern Kosovo from the rest of Kosovo proper. The German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, announced immediately that consultations on forwarding Serbia's EU candidacy application to the European Commission should commence.

“Kosovo has a dream”

“One day Kosovo will have it’s own Columbia. This is the dream of young people in Kosovo and a vision of mine. Many dreams have become a reality in Kosovo. I believe this will become a reality too”. Listening to the Prime Minister and his deep respect for Columbia and Eisenhower, I cast back my mind back to the neglected buildings of the University of Pristina and felt that the Prime Minister probably has his work cut out for him.

At times the Prime Minister’s narrative sounded a touch over-optimistic, but then the word ‘dream’ appeared no less than eight times in his short speech. Quite how long citizens can content themselves with dreams alone remains to be seen.