MIREES 2006-2008

The Interdisciplinary Master's in East European Research and Studies is a two-year intensive program, combining an academic nature with professional training on Eastern, Central and Balkan Europe. Unique in Italy and Europe, the Master's is launched by the Forlì Campus of the University of Bologna with the cooperation of a network of 30 Universities.

Master's MIREES was recently one of the few programs included in the Process for the internationalization of the Italian University System (Art. 10 - D.M. 08.05.2001) of the italian Ministry for the University and ResearchSi apre in una nuova finestra, with the official note 'Nota del 23.12.2002 - Prot. 2160'Si apre in una nuova finestra.

MIREES program and its various activities, public lectures and conferences are coordinated by Prof. Stefano Bianchini, full professor at the School of Political Scienze "R. Ruffilli" in Forlì and Director of the "Istituto per l'Europa Centro-Orientale e Balcanica", which provides the expertise, the network and the work force for the success of the Master's program MIREES.

MIREES yields an international diploma issued by the Universities of Bologna, Ljubljana, Vitautas Magnus University of Kaunas, Corvinus University of Budapest, and Dániel Berzseny College of Szombáthely.

In August 2000 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church published The Fundamentals of the social conception of the Russian Orthodox Church. This document represented a dramatic change in the framework of the Orthodox Churches . In fact , unlike the Catholic Church , which published its first document of social doctrine , Rerum Novarum , in 1891 with Pope Leon XIII , no orthodox church had elaborated a social doctrine until 2000. The necessity for a social doctrine come from the understanding that only through the engagement with the challenges posed by the modernity , could the Russian Orthodox Church aim at playing a more crucial role in the Russian Society. Therefore , Christianity is no longer conceived as " a religion for inner use" mostly defined by its transcendental dimension , but is a principle that can deal with the different aspects, social , political , economic , ecological , bio-ethical etc. In a secularised society and under the condition of freedom for the Church created in post-Soviet society , a social teaching became a necessity , in order for the Russian Orthodoxy to take part in the political debate and endow believers with guidelines for a better understanding of the current most important social issues.

In last decade, reconciliation has become one of the "hottest" topics in the field of conflict resolution. As a rule reconciliation is one of the stages of conflict resolution, which usually comes after the hostilities are ceased. There is no single agreed-upon definition of this term though different scholars indicate to different activities and characteristics of this concept. John Paul Lederach indicates that reconciliation requires four elements: truth, justice, mercy and peace. According to him those 4 elements may contradict to each other, however "without all four elements, reconciliation cannot exist".1 At the same time Mari Fitzduff describes reconciliation as a "jigsaw puzzle". She indicates that reconciliation is pieces of peace, everything from reforming the police to encouraging dialogue between the disputing communities.2However generally we could say that reconciliation is a complicated but powerful concept designed to address the emotional aspects of conflict and promote healing and forgiveness in divided societies.3There are different methods or techniques to foster the reconciliation, however the present essay will be devoted to the most famous one - Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (hereinafter TRC).

Since the end of WWII and its grotesque Holocaust we have witnessed various brutal wars during the 1990s which were mainly named as 'civil wars' or 'ethnic wars'. This labeling in my view tried to differentiate the wars of early 1990s from WWII as to make them incomparable to the monstrous genocide of the Holocaust and legitimize non-intervention. As a result, leading powers, i.e. the United States, Great Britain and France, were reluctant in creating effective and immediate policies that could have responded to the humanitarian crisis which hit a population faced with systematic gross human rights violation. Bosnia and Rwanda are two perfect examples of such a situation where its population was submerged into another Holocaust while the world stood aside and watched. In this essay I will concentrate primarily on the early period of Bosnian war of 1992-1995. Three main actors played a vital role in creating confusion and ambiguity that contributed to the inaction of major powers and thus lead to the destruction of a country. The three actors are the leading powers, the humanitarian agencies (mainly the UNHCR and ICRC), and the international media. Nevertheless, the most important role was conducted by the media which operated with the major powers and the humanitarian agencies in describing the nature, naming and the culprits of the event through the so called 'media framing' that helped legitimize inaction.

The events of September 11, 2001 marked a turning point in the political consciousness of American society and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in that of societies the world over. The harrowing scenes of that morning have been seared into the collective memory of countless millions. For days the media provided around-the-clock coverage of what many were immediately referring to as the worst, the most devastating non-state (read terrorist) attack in human history. Many pundits were quick to draw comparisons to the attack of December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Empire of Japan. The popular imagination constructed a narrative of a "sleeping giant" (a clear reference to Pearl Harbor) which had been attacked without provocation and which then bellowed for retaliation. Yet one cannot ignore the political consequences of the attack itself both on American foreign and domestic policy and, analogously, on the foreign and domestic policies of regimes throughout the world. America and other countries cited and continue to cite the threat of "another 9/11" in their own countries as reason to enact of number of intrusive and often repressive policies against their own populations. Sadly, as is often the case, political elites exploited the attacks to further political goals and initiatives.

This essay intends to describe and analyze the development of Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a special focus on the decade after the fall of Communism, the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the civil war 1992-1995 when Islam became suddenly visible. How has Islam evolved, which are the major changes and what does "Islam" stand for in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina? In order to answer to these questions, it is necessary to provide an outline of the history of Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina with regard to the development of a national self-consciousness based on religion. The period of Communism in Yugoslavia is of particular importance. In the late 1960s the religious notion of "Muslim" was equalized and identified with nationhood. At the same time it is indispensable to take into consideration the religious life of the Muslin population in this period (despite limited sources). The politicization became evident when the Yugoslav Federation collapsed and religion as the most prominent feature of nationhood was to be the fault-line in a horrific war and the leading principle for the following process of state-building. With the introduction of pluralistic elections the Muslims founded their own political party - as did the other so-called constituent nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina.