From 9 to 12 August 2011 I participated in the XVI Nordic Political Science Congress at Abo Akademi at Vaasa (Finland). The Congress website is here: http://www.nopsa2011.abo.fi/english.html   Although meant more for political science associations from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, I found many Estonian delegates – Kadri Simm (University of Tartu) with presentation “Nordic Reflections in the […]

Jeffrey C. Alexander, the Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology at Yale University gave a public lecture today at Tallinn University. He was talking about the Egyptian revolution – event that he considered the most important in the Arab world and a day-by-day drama that could be dated between 25 January and 11 February 2011 during which […]

Half dead half alive I am back home and to daily Internet access, and today also celebrates the first day of the Polish EU presidency at the time Jerzy Buzek being the president of the European Parliament and Janusz Lewandowski the commissioner for financial programming and budget. What kind of challenges does the new presidency face? – Change of the understanding of the welfare state, […]

From 24 May 2011 I learn Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) at the Arabeya language school at Cairo. The teachers study at the Ain Shams University, and the method of teaching has worked on me – With three days I have learned the alphabet, some basic everyday phrases, the possessive pronoun, names of the World’s states […]

The book: Paul F. Diehl, Charlotte Ku, “The Dynamics of International Law” (Cambridge University Press, 2010) brings a new framework for analysis and a model for legal change and influence of normative change in international law indicating the systemic imbalance of international law. To my mind this book is probably offering the best academic solutions to […]

On 4 May 2011 (Latvian Independence Day) I came to Istanbul with the aim to attend the Weekend School organized by the Boğaziçi University Center for European Studies Student Forum (CESSF) (the university has  Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence) on the general topic: “Accession to the EU: Expectations and Realities” taking place from 5 to 7 May 2011.   5 May […]

Ynetnews at 3.05:  “Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi survived a NATO airstrike on Saturday night that killed his youngest son Saif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren, a Libyan government spokesman said. Mussa Ibrahim said Saif al-Arab was a civilian and a student who had studied in Germany. He was 29 years old”.  Will Iran be the next […]