Podcasts / Vienna Coffee House Conversations with Ivan Vejvoda

In this week's episode, Ivan Vejvoda is joined by Balázs Jarábik to consider the future of Ukraine and its neighbors in a Europe forever changed by the full-scale Russian invasion of 24 February 2022. How will extending the embrace of the EU and NATO as signaled by Western European leaders impact the global situation? What will be the on-the-ground effects of the war for Moldova, the territory of Transnistria, for the neighborhood and for Ukraine itself? What kind of Ukraine will emerge when the war finally ends and life returns to something approaching 'normal'?

Writer, editor and prominent intellectual Oksana Forostyna joins Ivan Vejvoda from Lviv to discuss the ongoing situation in Ukraine, her recent essay on Ukrainian jokes and humour and their importance as a shield against trauma and aggression, the political life of the country during wartime; and daily family life during these difficult years.

As Europeans reckon once again with the challenges of war on their continent, has the pressing issue of climate change fallen by the wayside as governments have scrambled to contend with even more immediate concerns? How can the EU work toward greater independence and security while still reacting appropriately to the environmental threat of global warming? In this conversation senior advisor at Open Society Foundations and Europe's Futures Fellow Heather Grabbe and Ivan Vejvoda explore the various angles on and approaches to this question from the generational shifts in attitudes toward climate policy and the march of technology to the green common ground that Europe can find with China.

This week Ivan Vejvoda is joined by Johns Hopkins University - School of Advanced International Studies adjunct professor and former foreign policy advisor to the Romanian presidential administration Veronica Anghel to discuss the state of EU enlargement policy in 2023. As the continent redefines itself, its security and its long-term objectives in the shadow of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, what is the state of play for candidate countries seeking to join the European Union? Will this prove to be a moment when the expansion of the EU's border to encompass Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans - a project that many considered stalled -can be revived? How have the requirements for entry and justification for enlargement changed since the fall of communism in the early 90s? Are unresolved border questions and the rise of right wing populism affecting the way that the EU27 approaches these questions?

This week, Europe's Futures Fellow and editor at N1 Television, CNN affiliate for the Adria-Balkans region, Ivana Dragičević talks to Ivan Vejvoda about Europe's youth and the shifting cultural and geopolitical forces that are shaping how young people see the world they are set to inherit. What to make of a trend that sees voter turnout waning while other forms of political engagement surge? Are the young susceptible to algorithms and bad actors found on social media apps that older generations don't use? How can Europe's institutions remain relevant when, to many, they simply do not look like the Europe that young people know?
 

In this episode, Director of Rome's Institute for International Affairs and 22/23 Europe's Futures Fellow of IWM and ERSTE Foundation Nathalie Tocci joins Ivan Vejvoda to offer her assessment of the European response to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. From the often surprising unity and speed with which the EU has adapted to economic, energy and geopolitical challenges to the more fraught issues of security and defense where a clear European purpose has been less in evidence, Nathalie and Ivan discuss the strengths and shortcomings that have been revealed by the war. Looking to the future, they also address the shifting power centres within the EU, the interaction of continent-wide forces with local concerns and the consequences of the war for the psychology of enlargement policy and other EU wide concerns.