Ivan Krastev wins Elemér Hantos Prize 2017

The Bulgarian political scientist and bestselling author Ivan Krastev from the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna has been awarded the Elemér Hantos Prize 2017. The Elemér Hantos Prize, named after the Hungarian economist and politician Elemér Hantos (1881-1942), is awarded annually by the Central Europe Foundation of Zurich, Switzerland, to persons and organizations for outstanding acheivements in promoting economic cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe. According to the official statement, Ivan Krastev has made a decisive contribution to achieving this goal by his many publications and positions in leading institutions. The prize was presented by Randy Charles Epping, president of the Central Europe Foundation, and Stefan Messmann, head of the award commitee and winner of the first Elemér Hantos Prize in 2006. Former laureates include Vaclav Havel, Adam Michnik, George Soros, Erhard Busek, Monica Macovei and Vesna Pusić.

Ivan Krastev, born in Lukovit/Bulgaria in 1965, is chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia. Since 2011 he is a Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (IWM), where he directs the research project “Democracy in Question”. He is a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the advisory board of the ERSTE Foundation, a member of the global advisory board of Open Society Foundations, New York, and a member of the advisory council of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF). From 2004 to 2006 Ivan Krastev has been the executive director of the International Commission on the Balkans chaired by the former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato. He has held fellowships at St. Antony’s College (Oxford); the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars (Washington, D.C.); the Collegium Budapest; the Wissenschaftskolleg (Berlin); the Institute of Federalism at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland); and the Remarque Institute at New York University. Furthermore he is a contributing opinion writer for The International New York Times. His many publications include “After Europe” (2017, Penn University Press), “Democracy Disrupted” (2014, Penn University Press) and “In Mistrust We Trust: Can Democracy Survive When We Don’t Trust Our Leaders?” (2013, TED books).