Retrospectively…

… the past 12 Years, ICEUR had to adapt to a rapidly changing and oscillating political, financial and social environment, albeit the original mission, hard-wired in its tribal memory, namely dialogue, the business-like discussion of controversial issues and mutual information remained intact and stable. With our financial basis and our socio-political capital significantly strengthened we are looking forward to the next decade.

Programmatic focal points for 2021

In line with expectable global developments and trends ICEUR plans to focus on the following activities:

Right-wing parties in the wider post-Soviet region: Parties and “movements” of nationalist ilk with clear authoritarian tendencies rejecting liberal values will, despite temporary setbacks, continue to be major political players. Vienna is believed to be a key venue for endeavours to promote such organizations and communities which as a rule march in lockstep with their international sponsors. Fellow travellers can also be found in other parts of the political spectrum. Type of activity: analytics

Conflict dynamics: as a result of geopolitical and regional power shifts, such protracted /”frozen”/ conflicts as Nagorno Karabakh, Moldova and Donbas are transforming. Type of activity: analytics, consultancy

Continued resistance in Belarus: Despite harsh measures employed by the Lukashenko regime, the political upheaval in Belarus is far from over. The eventual outcome of the processes triggered may go far beyond constitutional reforms. Type of activity: mediation, consultancy, beefing up outreach to parties, Trade Unions, civil society, liaison with Brussels, analytics

The politics of Islam: As the pandemic threat weakens, the theme of radical Islam is regaining traction. At issue is the evolution of specific forms of Russian Islam (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan) and its ramifications abroad such as the Chechen diasporas in Europe

Prediction and Error – The community of Russian political analysts: This program aims at providing a factual basis to evaluate the predictive power and the analytical capacity of Russianthink tanks, advisory bodies and individual analysts. Types of activity: categorization of internet resources, expert interviews.