Forum - Photo Gallery

The Fall of Communism in Europe: 1989-2009
– 20 Years Later

he Center for Renewal of Culture is hosting an international conference featuring former President of Poland i Nobel Laureate, H.E. Lech Walesa. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall which led to historical changes in Europe. It is important to recall the factors which caused the collapse of communism in Europe, as well as to draw the right lessons for future generations.

Forum - Lecturers

LECH WAŁĘSA is a Polish statesman and a former trade union and human rights activist. He co-founded Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995. In 1995, he founded The Lech Walesa Institute, whose mission is to support democracy and local governments in Poland and throughout the world. Today, Lech Walesa continues his mission of the propagator of solidarity. While traveling the globe, he reminds the whole world of the Polish example and the non-violent struggle for peace and democracy. He was voted by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

MART LAAR is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes. He was the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002. Many credit Laar for leading Estonia through lightning economic reforms that won Western praise and ultimately laid the groundwork for rapid economic growth and acceptance to European Union entry talks. It is also believed that Laar's economic reforms led to the Baltic Tiger period starting for Estonia after 2000. Laar’s reforms are referred to as the most thorough in the region and are occasionally used as a model for other transitions. The results of the radical reforms have been recognized by Transparency International (which ranked Estonia the least corrupt country in the post-communist region), the Heritage Foundation / Wall Street Journal (whose index qualified Estonia as the most economically free in all of Europe), the United Nations Development Program (whose Human Development Index measured Estonia’s rapid rise in such quality-of-life parameters as education, health, income and environment), and the Cato Institute, which awarded Laar the Cato Institute's Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty in 2006.

José Piñera is an economist and public intellectual who is best known as the architect of Chile's private pension system based on personal retirement accounts. Piñera has been called "the world's foremost advocate of privatizing public pension systems”. He is now Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, a think-tank based in Washington, President of the International Center for Pension Reform based in Santiago, Senior Fellow at the Italian think tank Istituto Bruno Leoni, and member of the Advisory Board of the Vienna-based Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe. This year, 2009 José Piñera won "Adam Smith Award" (2009), Association of Private Enterprise Education. Dr. Piñera now advises governments throughout the world on the establishment of personal account retirement systems. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Wired, and several other publications.

Robin Harris is a British historian, author and journalist. He has written for “The Daily Telegraph” and “Prospect”. He holds a PhD in modern history from Oxford University. Harris was the Director of the Conservative Research Department from 1985 to 1988 and a member of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from 1989 to 1990. Currently he is serving as the Director-Advisor to the »Politeia«. Harris has exceptional knowledge of Croatia, and is the author of the book » Dubrovnik A History«. He is also a member of the board of The Croatian Center for renewal of Culture.

Damian von Stauffenberg a German national, is the president of the Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe. He is an expert in international finance and developing nations. Mr. von Stauffenberg built up 25 years of experience at the World Bank and its private sector affiliate, International Finance Corporation, before founding MicroRate - a rating agency for microfinance institutions. Mr. von Stauffenberg has over ten years of experience with the transition in post-Communist Russia which led, in 2001, to his becoming the first president of the Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe. He is a member of the German aristocratic family von Stauffenberg, whose best known member was Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg - the key figure in the 1944 "Valkyrie plot" to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Roberto de Mattei teaches History of Christianity and of the Church at the European University in Rome, where he is also Coordinator of the Degree Course in Historical Sciences. He is President of the Lepanto Foundation (Rome - Washington), and vice-President of the National Research Council of Italy where he has been vice - commissioner (2003) and vice-President (2004-2007) with the delegation for Human Sciences; he is a member of the Board of Guarantors of the “Italian Academy” (Columbia University, New York) and the Board of Directors of the “Italian Historical Institute for the Modern and Contemporary Age”; he is a member of the Board of Directors of the "Italian Geographic Society". Dr. de Mattei is editor-in-chief of the monthly historical review “Nova Historica”, of the monthly review “Radici Cristiane” and of the weekly publication “Corrispondenza romana”. From February 2002 to May 2006 he was Advisor to the Italian Government on International Affairs. He is the author of numerous books and publications which have been translated into a variety of languages as well as a regular contributor to many Italian and foreign reviews and newspapers alike.

JOHN O'SULLIVAN is a British conservative political commentator and journalist and currently the executive editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague. He is Editor-at-Large of the opinion magazine National Review and a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. Prior to this, he was the Editor-in-Chief of United Press International, Editor-in-Chief of the international affairs magazine, The National Interest, and a Special Adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He is the founder and co-chairman of the New Atlantic Initiative, an international organization dedicated to reinvigorating and expanding the Atlantic community of democracies. The organization was created at the Congress of Prague in May 1996 by President Václav Havel and Lady Margaret Thatcher. O'Sullivan has published articles in Encounter, Commentary, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Policy Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The American Spectator, The Spectator, The American Conservative, Quadrant, The Hibernian and other journals. He is also the author of the book “The President, the Pope, the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World”.

Program

The Fall of Communism in Europe: 1989-2009 – 20 Years Later

December 4, 2009, Zagreb, Vijenac Hall, Kaptol 29

8:30

Registration of participant

9:00

Welcoming remarks, Stephen Bartulica, Center for the Renewal of Culture

Baron Damian von Stauffenberg, President EICEE, Washington DC
Jadranka Kosor, Prime Minister of Croatia

Keynote Address:
H.E. Lech Walesa, former President of Poland (followed by 15 minutes for questions)

10:15

Panel 1: Communism: A historical perspective
Moderator: Baron Damian von Stauffenberg, EICEE, Washington DC

Mart Laar, Former PM of Estonia, Tallinn
Roberto de Mattei, European University, Rome
Jure Krišto, Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb

11:30

Coffee Break

12:00

Panel 2: 1989-2009, lessons learned for Europe
Moderator: John O'Sullivan, executive editor, Radio Free Europe, Prague

Lech Walesa
Robin Harris, Former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, London
Jose Pinera, CATO Institute, Washington DC

13:30

Conclusion

Attendance is reserved for invited guests, accredited media and registered participants only