POLISH STUDIES ENDOWMENT COMMITTEE

Ideology and the Tragedy of East Central Europe in the 20th Century

Ideology and the Tragedy of East Central Europe in the 20th Century

Daniel Chirot

December 10, 2009 at 7:00PM UW Campus, Walker-Ames Room at Kane Hall

Professor Chirot will discuss the ideological underpinnings of events
which took place in East Central Europe during the 20th century
finally leading to the systemic transformation 20 years ago. He will
present the larger historical and geo-political context of this European
region, focusing in particular on Romania, which in December 1989 broke
the communist system with short but bloody revolution. This lecture is
part of a series of lectures and other events entitled From
Revolution to Security and Prosperity
, celebrating the
anniversaries of Central and East European countriesí transformation to
democracy and market economy and their accession to NATO and the
European Union. This year-long series was initiated by the UW Polish
Studies Endowment Committee with support from the Ellison Center, the
Slavic Department, and Evans School of Public Affairs.

Daniel
Chirot is Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor of International Studies and
Sociology. He has authored three books on social change as well as
Modern Tyrants, a study revealing the forces that allow the modern
tyrants to come to power and helping us to predict where they may
arise in the future. His most recent book, co-authored with Clark
McCauley, is Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass
Political Murder (Princeton University Press 2006). He is the editor
and co-editor of four books and the founding editor of the journal East
European Politics and Societies. His research has been sponsored by the
Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations, by the Social Science
Research Council, and by the Institute for Human Studies in Vienna. He
has consulted for the American Government, the National Endowment for
Democracy, the Ford Foundation, and CARE. In 2004/05, he was a
Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, working on
conflicts in Africa. He has a B.A. from Harvard University and a
Ph.D. from Columbia University.

For more information about The
Ellison Center and the UWPSEC, visit:
http://jsis.washington.edu/ellison/