Overview

Overview

The Forum is Organized by the Office of President Gjorge Ivanov and the academy for cultural diplomacy.

The Skopje Cultural Diplomacy Forum 2023 will take place in Skopje and will focus on “Promoting Democracy, Unity and Peace through Cultural Diplomacy in A New Era of Conflict and Violence.”

The event will bring together renowned figures from international politics, business, art and academia to speak to an interdisciplinary audience including diplomatic and political representatives, scholars and academics.

Through a program of lectures, discussions, debates, and cultural activities the Forum will focus on Promoting Democracy, Unity and Peace through Cultural Diplomacy in A New Era of Conflict and Violence.

The forum will take place in the framework of “The Forum on Democracy & Peace 2022-27”.

Locations

Based in Skopje, the conference will be hosted in a number of important political, historic, and cultural locations across the city.

Speakers & Delegates

Speakers during the forum will include leading politicians, senior diplomats, governmental officials, senior academics, journalists, and celebrated artists. These speakers will include a large number of individuals from the ICD Advisory Board. To learn more about the ICD Advisory Board, please click here.

”The Forum on Democracy & Peace 2022-27” »

”The Forum on Democracy & Peace 2022-27” is a 5-year project starting July 2022 and is conducted by the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy in cooperation with global governance organisations, national governments, international corporations and leading academic institutions.

Concept

During the first decade of the 21st century, societies were influenced by high hopes, when globalisation was the trendy currency word and the historic closeness of East and West starting in 1989 was celebrated and embraced.

Second Decade - During the second decade of the 21st century, however, the global community has been challenged with major events such as the Arab Spring, the creation of ISIS, the growing distance of the East-West including China, and the continuation of failing States in many parts of the World. At the same time the withdrawal of America from many of its traditional international partners such as in the Middle East and Europe, and the increased use of the America First doctrine has brought also the West-West relations into crisis. Parallel, environmental issues and other social issues such as poverty and migration have created a critical crisis in both the US and Europe. These escalating social challenges even brought a senior EU member country, the UK, to exit from the European Union.

Third Decade - Already from the start of the third decade of the 21st century, the world has faced a global pandemic, which is hurting citizens globally to this day. The effects of this pandemic, in addition to political crisis in Jemen, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Ukraine,  and other countries serve as a warning that those diplomatic efforts are starting to fail and major conflicts are starting to take over the international policy priorities.

The Project

Under these precarious global circumstances, the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy has launched the Forum on Democracy & Peace (2022-27), with the main aim to use the application of cultural diplomacy in order to improve international relations and by doing so, uniting the powers of the contemporary world to better face today's global concerns. The vision of the project is to create through its networks & participants, innovative initiatives and programs in order to further the dialogue and to create a sustainable impact in strengthening international cooperation. The project will lead to increased research and the creation of academic programs in the field of international relations, economics and law.