On Wednesday, February 3rd the first International Conference entitled “National and International Security: Contemporary Global Challenges” was opened at John Naisbitt University.
John Naisbitt University organized the conference in cooperation with Research Institute for European and American Studies (Greece), the Institute for Transnational Studies (Germany), International Strategic Studies Association (USA), Centre for American Studies, Fudan University (China) and the Institute for Semitic studies (USA).
The conference was opened by the Rector of John Naisbitt University prof. dr. Slobodan Pajovic who stressed the importance of the issue on a global level, with particular reference to the migrant crisis. Furthermore, he also pointed out that the organization of the conference is the contribution of John Naisbitt University not only to the field of security studies, but also to the development of the society based on knowledge and expertise in Serbia.
After the Rector Pajovic’s speech, the world-renowned analyst, Mr. Yossef Bodansky addressed the audience. Mr. Bodansky explained the historical and cultural background of Islamic extremism, pointing out that during the Cold War everybody was focused on the US and the USSR, while no one paid attention to what was happening in the other parts of the world, such as Middle East.
After the ceremonial opening, the conference continued in two sessions. In the first session, Jonathan Fighel from the International Institute for Counter-terrorism in Israel (ICT) gave a speech, and then John Nomikos from the Research Institute for European and American Studies who focused on the security challenges regarding illegal migration in Europe. These presentations were followed by the professors from the Faculty of Security, Zoran Dragisic and Darko Trifunovic.
The theme of the second session was “Radicalism, extremism and terrorism,” presented by Ephraim Isaac, a professor with the Institute of Semitic Studies; His Excellency Ambassador Milos Strugar; Miroljub Jevtic, professor at the Faculty of Political Science and professor Marko Lombardi from CatholicUniversity, Milan.
After each session, the students and participants had a constructive debate regarding security challenges in contemporary society.
