The Fifth Enlargement of the EU, Five Years On: The Case of Poland and the Czech Republic
In 2009, Europe will celebrate many anniversaries, all of which are of special importance for the new member states. It will be five years since the European Union"s (EU) big bang enlargement of 2004; ten years since the first enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to post-communist states; twenty years after the round-table negotiations in Poland and the fall of the Berlin Wall; seventy years since the beginning of World War II. With the exception of the Berlin Wall and the start of World War II, all other anniversaries will be celebrated during a new member state"s (the Czech Republic"s) EU Presidency: NATO enlarged in March, the EU in May, and the first partially-free elections were held in Poland in June.
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The Fifth Enlargement of the EU, Five Years On: The Case of Poland and the Czech Republic
Center for Asian Studies
Asia is a nerve center for multiple global economic, political and security challenges. The Center for Asian Studies provides documented expertise and a platform for discussion on Asian issues to accompany decision makers and explain and contextualize developments in the region for the sake of a larger public dialogue.
The Center's research is organized along two major axes: relations between Asia's major powers and the rest of the world; and internal economic and social dynamics of Asian countries. The Center's research focuses primarily on China, Japan, India, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, but also covers Southeast Asia, the Korean peninsula and the Pacific Islands.
The Centre for Asian Studies maintains close institutional links with counterpart research institutes in Europe and Asia, and its researchers regularly carry out fieldwork in the region.
The Center organizes closed-door roundtables, expert-level seminars and a number of public events, including an Annual Conference, that welcome experts from Asia, Europe and the United States. The work of Center’s researchers, as well as that of their partners, is regularly published in the Center’s electronic journal Asie.Visions.
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