National Identity in a Post-Soviet World

Dr Vladislav Kuchmisty, Vice-Rector for International Relations, opened the conference on behalf of our International Interdisciplinary Centre for Slavic Studies. The event involved academics from the Belgrade Institute for Political Studies, the Center for Russian Studies at the University of Belgrade, both from Serbia, and the University of Banja Luka in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Professor Olga Prokhorova, Director of our Institute for Cross-Cultural Communication and International Relations, and Dr Živojin Đurić, Director of the Belgrade Institute of Political Studies, co-hosted the
plenary session. It began with a report from Dr Đurić's colleague Professor Zoran Milošević, on the geopolitical significance of Romania, and the role of historical experience in solving contemporary cultural and political problems. The academics then covered diverse topics related to the subject, including changing political structures, issues of self-determination for states, and the impact of consumer culture on this process. They touched on language as a defining factor, and the ideas of 'Slavic' and 'Russian', and integration in the Post-Soviet world.