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http://un.ua/eng/article/270686.html Press center Panel Discussion, Quest for "Greater Romania"? Traian Basescu's Agenda for Moldova and Pridnestrovie, and the Stakes for Ukraine (11:00, Thursday, June 17, 2010) On Thursday, July 17th the American Institute in Ukraine (AIU) hosted an Experts’ ROUNDTABLE featuring Ukrainian and international experts including: Dr. Srdja Trifkovic (Center for International Affairs, Rockford Institute, and the Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies) and James George Jatras (Deputy Director, AIU) on the subject of: Quest for “Greater Romania”? Traian Basescu’s Agenda for Moldova and Pridnestrovie, and the Stakes for Ukraine. In recent weeks Romania’s president Traian Basescu has stepped up what may be seen as a campaign for restoration of Bucharest’s dominance over all areas that were part of Romania prior to World War II, or merely claimed as Romanian at Versailles in 1919 by the ideologues of Romania Mare. (See map) This would include, first of all, the former Soviet Republic of Moldova and the quasi-independent republic of Pridnestrovie. In addition, eastern Serbia (Banat, Homolje), north-eastern Bulgaria (Dobruja) and Ukraine (parts of Odessa oblast’ including Izmail and Chernivtsi) are all potentially affected by the new spirit of irredentism emanating from Bucharest. At the same time, some circles in the West, notably in the United States, warn ominously of a supposed “secret protocol” between Moscow and Kiev to establish their control in Moldova and Pridnestrovie. American Institute in Ukraine was try to give answers to the following questions: * What are the facts of the case, and what are the stakes for Ukraine? * Will President Basescu take comparable risks by trying to use his country’s membership in NATO and the EU in a bid to create a Romania even greater than it is today? * Having just hosted a visit to Bucharest by Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili and endorsed Tbilisi’s moribund NATO membership bid, would he follow the path marked in August 2008 by his discredited Georgian counterpart? * Will Washington, Brussels, and European governments become involved, and in what way? * What can be learned from the public mood and elite opinion in Bucharest, Kishinev, and Tiraspol? * What can and should the Yanukovich administration do to avert a threat to its national security and territorial integrity, and do its part to preserve and strengthen regional stability and rule of law? The American Institute in Ukraine has invited Dr. Srdja Trifkovic, one of America’s leading experts on the politics and history of Southeast Europe and an insightful author and analyst, to address these issues in a Roundtable discussion with such Ukrainian experts as: Vitalii Kulyk, director of the Centre for Research of Civil Society Problems; Oleksandr Vasenko, deputy director of the Ukrainian Research and Development Institute of Environmental Problems, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine; Serhii Tolstov, director of the Institute for Political Analysis and International Research. Srdja Trifkovic is a well-known conservative writer and authority on European and global affairs. He has published op-eds and commentaries in The Times of London, the San Francisco Chronicle, the American Conservative, and The Philadelphia Inquirer, and been a commentator on numerous national and international TV and radio programs, including the Oliver North Show on (MSNBC), CNN, CNN International, SKY News, BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, and CBC. He earned a BA (with honors) in international relations from the University of Sussex (United Kingdom) in 1977 and another, in political science, from the University of Zagreb in 1987. Since 1990 he has held a PhD in modern history from the University of Southampton (UK) and in 1991-1992 he pursued post-doctoral research on a Title VIII grant from the U.S. Department of State as a Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution in California. James George Jatras is the Deputy Director of the American Institute in Ukraine. He is a principal in a public advocacy firm based in Washington, DC. Prior to entering the private sector he was senior foreign policy adviser to the Republican leadership of the United States Senate. He also served as an U.S. Foreign Service Officer, in which capacity he carried out a number of assignments, including a tour of duty in the Office of Soviet Union Affairs (as it then was) and in Mexico. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center (Juris Doctor, 1978) and the Pennsylvania State University (Bachelor of Arts, 1974.)
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