ANITA SĘK
More than a year ago, on 30 December 2010, Centre for International Initiatives (CII, in Polish Centrum Inicjatyw Międzynarodowych) was recorded in the Cracow’s National Registry Court as fully official and legal association. Thus a dream of a couple of International Relations’ students’ generations of the Jagiellonian University, wishing to continue their civic endeavours aiming at popularization of the IR knowledge among Polish (and wider) society, came true.
I have a pleasure to be CII’s second President of the Board, consisting in its second term of fantastic women only: hard-working Secretary Basia Marcinkowska and creative and well-educated in the matter Marta Makowska. I believe together we compose a harmonious Team, able to lead CII through uneasy first months of existence. It would not be however possible without loads of work done by the first President Tomasz Pawłuszko, to whom I pay tribute thanking wholeheartedly for kicking of the CII’s beginnings with tones of those various complicated and complex papers!
Today is the highest time for presenting to the broader world what we all – Cracow and Warsaw members of the CII – have achieved in this last year. There are still a lot to be done, I am aware of it, but the successes are already impressive. Hence, this note is also written to say to our members and fans: thank you! Thank you for your being with CII!
The greatest debut of the year belong definitively to the Asian Programme, run by Paweł Bieńkowski, who is not only the most prolific writer of CII’s analyzis and blog’s articles, but also the most fruitful headhunter of new CII and Asian Programme members, sitting around Europe and Asia, i.a. in China, Republic of Korea, London, Brussels and Warsaw.
The Youth Eastern Partnership, an international research project inherited after KSSM UJ with its leader in my modest person, continues its works, issuing the YEaP Newsletters, driven by its new Editor-in-chief Zsuzsanna Vegh. The programme is collecting people from the EU and Eastern Partnership countries, concentrating on EaP initiative. In previous year we sent our first publication “The Eastern Partnership: New Perspectives for a New Europe” to foreign embassies in Warsaw and Polish ministries. Currently, there are discussions led upon new 2012-and-beyond strategy.
The anarchistic (meaning collective, single-coordinator-less) Liberty Programme is preparing its first analyzes, focusing on various world’s pension-systems, as proposed by Piotr Szafruga. One of the most active CII’s members and a member of the LP Rafał Bill co-organized a few conferences (mentioned below). With Jagiellonian University and the Economic University in Cracow he is preparing a cycle of economic-political debates entitled “Agora of the 21st century”, while working on his own Economic Programme. Rafał has been recently appointed a coordinator of CII-KSSM UJ (International Relations Students’ Association of the Jagiellonian University) relations.
Jakub Grabowski, a Director of the programme Modern Face of the World, is working close with the Jagiellonian University on issuing two publications on Iran and Pakistan in 2012, revealing cultures, societies and politics of countries neglected in Polish political sciences.
Without doubt, one of the most significant CII’s successes is our blog, run bravely by Basia Marcinkowska. Among 108 articles written from February 2011 there are 12 written in English. The themes are concentrating around: Asia (China), Europe (EU), security studies, diplomacy, economics and society of the 21st century, but there are also plenty of unconventional texts, i.a. about Himalayas, sea piracy, Sudan, Julian Assange, Yemen, and even Facebook. Currently we apply for the title of the best Polish blog 2011 on Politics and Society.
Besides existing programmes, there are some talks on new ones: the most advanced negotiations regard American Programme, being constructed by our relatively fresh member Łukasz Smalec.
Since September 2011 on our newly set up by Jakub Grabowski page centruminicjatyw.org an Editorial Team has published 14 analysis, seven of them in English. The majority touch upon international security, and regions of Middle East, East Asia and Eastern Europe and Caucasus. Next analysis are queuing to be edited and published.
Co-organized events and CII’s patronages
• a debate “The ability of GDP growth and social development in the light of the reduction of CO2”, organized by KSSM UJ, 19.12.2011, Cracow;
• a conference “The Balkans 15 years after the war”, organized by the Scientific Circle of Foreign Trade at the University of Economics in Cracow on 5-7.04.2011;
• a conference “Undiscovered Areas of Business”, organized by the Scientific Circle of Foreign Trade in Cracow, Rafał Bill, CII’s member, delivered a speech;
• an event “Days of India in Cracow”, organized by the Scientific Circle of Indologists of the Jagiellonian University, 23-26.05.2011;
• a conference “Polish Presidency of the EU – opportunities or threats?”, Technical University of Opole, 7-8.04.2011; Tomasz Pawłuszko, member of the CII, delivered a speech.
International events
Paweł Bieńkowski represented Poland at the EU-China Year of Youth in Brussels (Belgium) and Shenzhen (China), conferences were organized by the European Commission and All China Youth Federation.
Tomasz Pawłuszko and Zuzanna Bartol were CII’s representatives at the Weimar Youth Forum on 2-4.12.2011 in Paris;
In December 2011 CII was a participant of the international conference European Development Days in Warsaw, co-organized by Artur Malantowicz who is also our member .
Other curiosities
Together with KSSM UJ we prepared a gift for one of the Cracow families in a national charity action titled “Szlachetna Paczka”, during an annual campaign run by Stowarzyszenie Wiosna.
On the last day of 2011 Paweł Bieńkowski was invited as an expert to Radio Wnet on an audition devoted to a recent visit of the President of Poland to China.
New Year, New Energy, New Ideas, New Plans!
Having survived the hardest first year in the life of each organization, I am a strong believer that what can limit us now is only – as the saying goes – the sky. We are a group of good older and newer friends, passionate about what we love doing, and doing it together, for our personal development and for the good of our societies. Among plenty of 2012 perspectives, we count on intensifying relations with organizations similar to our own. The culmination of the year will be a coordination of Weimar Youth Forum – in Autumn French and German young professionals will come to Warsaw in order to meet with us and discuss political issues relevant and interesting to the youth.
And you? What’s your New Year’s dream? You can still join us in our 2012 adventure with Centre for International Initiative!
This year we rock harder!
for sure 🙂