On 29th March 2021, a day before the Åland Demilitarisation Day, it is time for the annual Kastelholm Talks on Peace with President Tarja Halonen as the patron. The talks in 2021 focus on peace mediation and peace promotion.

– We wanted to have a theme that directly connects to the Åland Islands solution as it was in itself an example of active efforts to promote peace, says the Director of the Peace Institute Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark. Next year it will be 100 years since the solution.

More information in Swedish here.

With the recent proposal for a pact on migration and asylum, the EU now wishes to hit the refresh button on one of the defining developments of our time. But what did the EU policy on migration and integration look like up until now, and why does it need freshening up? In the second issue of JASS 2020, we are invited to reflect upon the trends in this field through the lens of the 2016 Action Plan on integration of third country nationals in the EU. See Gustav Blomberg: EU Policy on Immigration and Integration: Multiculturalism or Assimilation?

For those curious of history and international relations, JASS offers a special holiday treat: a deep dive into the complex relations between Sweden and the US during the Vietnam War. Drawing from recently declassified sources from the Military Archives of Sweden, Naman Karl-Thomas Habtom shows us a historic example of how a small state attempts to balance an independent foreign policy while maintaining its relations. See Naman Karl-Thomas Habtom: Swedish-American Relations and the Vietnam War, 1965–1975

Season´s greetings from the JASS editorial team! Deadline for submissions to JASS 1-2021: 31^st of March 2021.

Contents

• The Kastelhom Talks 2021
• Welcome to apply to our new Åland Peace Fellowship
• Part 3 of the EU seminar series - 15.12
• New issue of JASS
• And more ...

Innehåll

• Kastelholmssamtalen 2021
• Välkommen att söka till vårt nya gästforskarprogram
• Del 3 i EU-seminarieserien: 15.12
• Nytt nummer av JASS
• Med mera ...

Read the newsletter here.

Läs nyhetsbrevet här.

Tesfaye Ayalew Mekonen is doing a remote, digital internship at the Åland Islands Peace Institute from December 2020 to February 2021.
He is originally from Ethiopia, but currently he is in Australia doing a Master of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland. He holds a Master of Law (LL.M) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Laws (LL.B). In recent years he has been teaching public law at the College of Law, Debre Berhan University, as well as providing pro bono legal aid services for disadvantaged individuals. He has been legal advisor for a government office engaged in land administration and a legal intern in the African Union Commission.
At the Peace Institute, he will work with issues of identity, conflict management and multilevel governance in the African context, contribute through writings and seminars and assist in the development of new digital materials on conflict resolution.

Democracy is being challenged by globalization, digitalisation and the ongoing COVID-19-pandemic. This is why the Anders Chydenius Foundation is today launching a new network on democracy in co-operation with the Åland Islands Peace Institute, Hanaholmen and Lund University with the Peace Institute's Director Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark in the management group. Several other Ålanders are also members of the network.

Former Ministers Margot Wallström and Jyrki Katainen are honorary members of the network and were today granted the annual Anders Chydenius democracy award.

The network is called Democracy Network 21 and will ensure that more people talk about democracy in the Nordic region.

Jessica Gregory is doing her Swedish language internship at the Peace Institute from November to December. She is originally from North Carolina, the United States, and has her Masters in Mechanical Engineering from both Virginia Tech and Cornell University. In parallel with the internship she is teaching mathematics at Åland University of Applied Sciences. She came to Åland for the first time in 2014 to visit a colleague and subsequently met her current partner. Jessica is interested in macroeconomics and climate change as well as all forms of outdoor activities, such as sailing, gardening and frisbee golf.

The research network RECAST (Reappraising Intellectual Debates on Civic Rights and Democracy in Europe) has opened Call for Applications for the Training School in the Humanities and the Social Sciences 2021 with a focus on Democratic Constitutionalism and Rights.

Scheduled for 10–12 February 2021, the RECAST Training School will be hosted by the Institute of Legal, Political and Sociological Research, Moldovan Academy of Sciences in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova.

Extented Deadline for applications is 18 December 2020.

The RECAST network is financed through the COST-program (Cooperation in Science and Technology) and researchers from 30 European countries belong to the netwotk. The Director of the Peace Institute, Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, acts as the Vice Chairperson of the network.

For further information about the Training School and Call for Applications see here.

The second seminar in the series “25 years in the EU: experiences of Åland” takes place on 25th November 2020. The seminar is organized by the Statistics Åland and is held in Swedish. The speakers, Jouko Kinnunen and Kenth Häggblom from Åland Statistics and Johanna Fogelström-Duns from the Office of the Åland Ombudsman, will discuss their observations on the development among population, education, labour market and civil society on Åland during its membership in the EU. Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark, Director of the Peace Institute, modarates the discussion.

The webinar is sent live at 13:00-14:30 EET at Zoom.

In this seminar series, given during autumn 2020 and spring 2021, the Åland Islands Peace Institute and Statistics Åland will present results from an evaluation of what the EU-membership has meant for Åland during 25 years. The evaluation has been commissioned by the Åland Government. All seminars will be held in Swedish.

The first seminar in the series took place on 13th October and can be watched at the Peace Institute’s youtube channel.

To ensure sustainable development, autonomous regions must “think for themselves” and provide inspiring, inclusive and dynamic environments for developing new ideas, as well as attract young people to stay or to return to the region. Strategies, cooperation, digitalization and investments on infrastructure are perquisites for knowledge development and research. What are the key development areas of Åland, and what is happening in other regions?

These thoughts and questions where discussed on 22 October when the KUT-network (Network for sustainable knowledge development on Åland) organized a conference on the subject “Knowledge and Research as Motors for Regional Development and Innovation”. 

The first half of the conference was held in English with four keynote speakers: Günther Rautz, EURAC Research in South Tyrol Italy, Nina Harjunpää, University Association of South Ostrobothnia, Annika Sølvará, the Research Council in Faroe Islands, Jouko Kinnunen, ÅSUB.

The conference can be watched on the youtube channel of the Åland Islands Peace Institute.

What is the color of peace? What inspiration and practical elements can be derived out of experiences in the Baltic Sea and Nordic region? How do we deal with what often seems to be insoluble conflicts?

The Director of the Peace Institute Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark takes part in a discussion on the Åland example and the Nordic way to peace in the newest Nordic Talks-podcast together with Arzu Abdullayeva, peace activist and chairwoman of the Azerbaijan National Committee of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, from Azerbaijan and Elçin Aktoprak, PhD and expert on conflict resolution and diversity issues, from Turkey.

In this episode the elements and usefulness of the Åland Example are discussed together with experiences of the peace practitioners working in the South Caucasus and the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, and with Kurdish matters. Through the discussion rises the main question of the episode, how can we contribute towards a more peaceful world?

“There is usually a way of not describing everything as black and white. The color of peace is grey” – Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark

Nordic Talks is a series of talks and podcasts addressing the biggest global challenges of our time.
Listen to the episode “the Nordic way to peace”.