About
The Institute of European Studies and International Relations (abb. IESIR) builds on the legacy of the Department of Political Science founded by Professor Miroslav Kusý at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in 1990. In addition to that, the direct predecessor of IESIR was the Centre of European Studies, founded as a multidisciplinary research center at Comenius University in 1998. In its present form, IESIR was established at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences at Comenius University in 2001. IESIR´s directors have been Jean Monnet Chair holders. As part of its institutional structure, IESIR also hosted the UNESCO Chair for human rights education.
The faculty members of IESIR have a multidisciplinary background in political science, sociology, international relations, organization studies, history, law, economics, diplomacy, and philosophy. Internal and external members of the IESIR are well experienced due to their studies and visiting fellowships at the leading international research institutions. IESIR has an active research agenda in European studies and international relations and participates in a number of international research projects. The Institute also actively cooperates with the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs in conducting research and organizing conferences.
IESIR offers bachelor and master degree programs in European Studies. It also offers a PhD-program in European Studies and Politics. Most of the courses at IESIR are offered in English by Slovak and international lecturers.
Post-election debate on the US election results
guests: Dušan Fischer, (SFPA), Andrea Figulová (IESIR), Maria Hummer (USA), Jeffrey Kirk (USA)
American elections brought (for many political scientists) surprising results. During the discussion at FSES, we focused on the key factors that secured the victory for Donald Trump - desire for change, gender aspect and weak mobilization of democrats. Moreover we focused also on possible de-professionalization of political positions and post-factual world that can have decisive impact on future political organization not only in the US. Last but not least, we stressed the importance of the EU to take its security and defence more seriously and to become a truly world leader promoting human rights and democratic standards. We all hope, president-elected will continue with the standard he set in his acceptance speech and will not follow the tendency of American presidents to fulfill 70-75% of their promises.
See you at the next debate!