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Euro-Mediterranean community, today's specificities and future perspectives

Tampere University
LocationMalminkatu 16, Helsinki
Eurooppa-sali
19.2.2019 11.00–14.00
LanguageEnglish
Entrance feeFree of charge
The seminar will illuminate the situation today and analyze future perspectives. The difficulties of today consist of three main domains - the political chaos in Europe, the destiny of refugees and migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean, and the several violent crises in the Middle East.

Programme

13.00    Markku Äärimaa: Welcoming address of the chairman of the AFFRST

13.10    Tuomo Melasuo: Euro-Mediterranean cooperation today and tomorrow

13.40    Kirsi Henriksson: Sahel and the Euro-Mediterranean Region – Challenges  and possibilities

14.10    Anitta Kynsilehto: Human mobility across the Mediterranean

14.40    Bruno Lefort: Youth politics in the Arab Mediterranean: marginalization or agency

15.10 - 16.00    Discussion: Kirsi Henriksson, Anitta Kynsilehto, Bruno Lefort and Tuomo Melasuo (chair) with participation of the audience

The speakers:
Kirsi Henriksson is Director of Crisis Management Center (CMC) Finland, which is a governmental institution and a center of expertise in civilian crisis management. The main tasks of CMC Finland are to train and recruit experts for international peace operations as well as to conduct research in the field. CMC Finland acts as a national head office for all seconded Finnish peacebuilding professionals.
Kirsi Henriksson has been Head of the European Union EUCAP Sahel Niger civilian crisis management mission (2016-2018). Preceding that, Ms Henriksson worked in Mali, Libya and Iraq. Before her current and international posts, she worked as a researcher and lecturer at the Tampere University, namely at Tampere Peace Research Institute.
In her presentation, she analyses the connection between Sahel and the Euro-Mediterranean Region. Despite the joint challenges (increase of violence, migration flows, organized crime, climate change), the cooperation between these two regions has been intensified by various local, regional and international actors.

Dr Anitta Kynsilehto works as a senior researcher at the New Social Research (NSR) programme and Tampere Peace Research Institute, Tampere University. Her work spans over different dimensions of human mobility and solidarity practices with and by people on the move, focusing on Europe and its Mediterranean neighbourhood. Between 2012-2018, she served as a board member in charge of migration and asylum at the Euromed Rights network.

Bruno Lefort is an Academy of Finland postdoctoral fellow at TAPRI, Tampere University. He is also an invited researcher at the department of political science, Université de Montréal, Canada, and an associated researcher at the French Institute for Middle Eastern Studies in Beirut, Lebanon. He has studied politics and societies in the Arab worlds for years, with a special focus on collective memory and the processes of identification among the Lebanese youth. His current project explores the politics belonging among Levantine diasporic communities in Canada and Finland. Today, his communication sheds light on the condition of the Arab Mediterranean youth and their relations to politics. He argues that, although young Arabs continue to suffer from a triple marginalization in their countries, keeping their distance with institutional political matters, many nonetheless actively confront the status quo through alternative types of engagement.

Dr Tuomo Melasuo is Professor Emeritus of Peace and Conflict Research, former Director of TAPRI, Tampere University, and Docent in Political History, University of Turku. Since creating the TAPRI Mediterranean Studies Project, he has been active in Euro-Mediterranean relations. He is or has been member of scientific bodies such as Advisory Council of Anna  Lindh Foundation, Academic Advisory Council in the Center for Mediterranean Dialogues of the New York University, steering committees of Femise and Sihmed, he is also a member of EuroMeSCo.
Tuomo Melasuo has published several books and articles in international and Finnish publications.
Today, professor Melasuo guides doctoral students and continues his scientific activities in peace and conflict research especially on Euro-Mediterranean relations.

Markku Äärimaa is Docent of Surgery, University of Turku, and former CEO of the Finnish Medical Association (FMA). Today he acts as chairman of AFFRST (Finnish-French Association on Scientific and Technical Research).

 

Organiser

The Finnish-French association on scientific and technical research (AFFRST) and TAPRI, Tampere University