Institute of International Relations and Political Science

Institute of International Relations and Political Science

Sukurta: 14 June 2020

tspmi10 Vokiečių, LT-01130 Vilnius
Tel. 251 4130
E-mail:
www: http://www.tspmi.vu.lt

Director – Assoc. Prof. Dr. Margarita Šešelgytė

 

STAFF

48 teachers (incl. 31 holding research degree), 16 doctoral students.

DEPARTMENTS OF THE FACULTY

Department of Political Philosophy and History of Ideas
Department of Political Behaviour and Institutions
Department of International Relations
Centre of European Studies
Public Administration and Policy Analysis Centre
The (Post)Soviet Memory Studies Centre

RESEARCH AREAS

Transformations of Lithuanian Political life: Theory and Practice
Development of the European Union after Lisbon Treaty
International Politics: Problems, Research Methods and Challenges for Lithuanian Foreign Policy

DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS MAINTAINED IN 2019

A. Tumkevič. Potential of international cooperation and conflict in cyberspace.
G. Karalius. The Idea of honour as a means to understand democracy. The perspective of XVIII-XIX century political philosophy.
V. Mačkinis. Traditions and reforms: enlightenment influences on Lithuanian political thought.

MAIN CONFERENCES ORGANIZED IN 2019

International conference Comparing the Baltics: New Agenda for Political Science.

National conference (annual conference of political science) Lithuanian Politics: Main Questions and Advancements in Research (co-organizer

Lithuanian Political Science Association).

National conference on Prof. Alvydas Jokubaitis’ political thought.

International conference Abolitionist Views on Prostitution: the Swedish Example (together with the Embassy of Sweden to Lithuania and the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania).

MAIN SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2019

Monograph by Tomas Janeliūnas D. Grybauskaitės doktrina: Lietuvos užsienio politikos kaita 2009–2019 (The Doctrine of D. Grybauskaitė: Changes in the Lithuanian Foreign Policy 2009–2019). Vilnius: Eugrimas.

Monograph by Nerija Putinaitė Skambantis molis. Dainų šventės ir Justino Marcinkevičiaus trilogija kaip sovietinio lietuviškumo ramsčiai (Ringing Clay: Song Festivals and Justinas Marcinkevičius’ Trilogy of Plays as Pillars of Soviet Lithuanian Identity). Vilnius: Naujasis židinys-Aidai.

An article by Vytautas Kuokštis, Mažvydas Jastramskis and Matas Baltrukevičius. Retrospective voting in Central and Eastern Europe: Hyper-accountability, corruption or socio-economic inequality? Party Politics.

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR AND INSTITUTIONS

10 Vokiečių, LT-01130 Vilnius
Tel. 251 4130
E-mail:

Head – Prof. Dr. Ainė Ramonaitė

STAFF

Professor: Dr. A. Ramonaitė.
Associate professors: Dr. J. Dementavičius, Dr. L. Gudžinskas, Dr. M. Jastramskis, Dr. D. Šlekys, Dr. I. Vinogradnaitė.
Assistants: Dr. N. Maliukevičius, Dr. I. Petronytė – Urbonavičienė, Dr. L. Strupinskienė, Dr. J. Ulinskaitė.
Junior assistant: J. Kavaliauskaitė.
Lecturer: V. Jurkonis.
Doctoral students: A. Dementavičienė, R. Garškaitė, P. Skirkevičius, L. Vervečkienė, V. Budreckaitė.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Party politics and electoral behaviour
Civil society, political participation, political attitudes and political communication
Democracy, political institutions, comparative politics
Studies of the Soviet-era society, Sąjūdis, collective memory of post-Soviet society

DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

10 Vokiečių, LT-01130 Vilnius
Tel. 251 4130
E-mail:

Head – Prof. Dr. Dovilė Jakniūnaitė

STAFF

Professors: Dr. N. Arlauskaitė, Dr. T. Janeliūnas, Dr. D. Jakniūnaitė, Dr. R. Vilpišauskas, Dr. G. Vitkus.
Associate professors: Dr. K. Andrijauskas, Dr. V. Kuokštis, Dr. V. Sirutavičius, Dr. M. Šešelgytė, Dr. D. Šlekys.
Assistants: Dr. L. Jonavičius, Dr. I. Koreivaitė, Dr. V. Beržiūnas, Dr. E. Leonaitė, Dr. N. Maliukevičius, Dr. L. Strupinskienė.
Lecturers: G. Biržytė, V. Jurkonis, A. Tumkevič.
Doctoral students: M. Antonovič, N. Bladaitė, I. Giedraitytė, J. Jachovič, A. Raginytė, I. Skurdauskaitė, A. Žukauskas.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Analysis of global political processes, environment and structures
International relations; international law; international political economy; international institutions; the foreign policy of great powers; the changing nature of world power etc.
Area studies: analysis of Russia, Europe (focusing on Eastern and Southern countries), Middle East; Eastern and Southern Asia; Latin America
Security and conflict studies
Analysis of Lithuanian foreign policy as well as its security policy

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF IDEAS

10 Vokiečių, LT-01130 Vilnius
Tel. 251 4130
E-mail:

Head – Prof. Dr. Alvydas Jokubaitis

STAFF

Professors: Dr. V. Davoliūtė, Dr. A. Jokubaitis.
Leading researcher: Dr. R. Lopata.
Associate professors: Dr. J. Dementavičius, Dr. A. Jankauskas, Dr. V. Sirutavičius, Dr. I. Vinogradnaitė.
Senior researcher: Dr. N. Putinaitė.
Assistants: Dr. L. Jokubaitis, Dr. G. Karalius.
Junior assistants: V. Bartininkas, J. Kavaliauskaitė, V. Mačkinis.
Affiliated researcher: Dr. K. Girnius.
Doctoral students: A. Dementavičienė, G. Norkūnaitė, V. Rimaitė, D. Kaminskas.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Politics and the self
Three strategies of accelerating political modernization: interwar period, Soviet years and the post-soviet era
Contradictions of modern political life
The relationship between democracy and republic

CENTRE OF EUROPEAN STUDIES

10 Vokiečių, LT-01130 Vilnius
Tel. 251 4130
E-mail:

Head – Prof. Dr. Gediminas Vitkus

STAFF

Professors: Dr. R. Vilpišauskas, Dr. G. Vitkus.
Associate professors: Dr. L. Gudžinskas, Dr. V. Kuokštis.
Assistants: Dr. E. Leonaitė, Dr. G. Karalius.
Junior assistant: R. Švedas.
Partnership professor: Dr. D. Kriaučiūnas.
Doctoral student: I. Giedraitytė.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

The topics related to contemporary Europe from its internal structure to its place in a wider World focusing on the European Union and its member states

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY ANALYSIS CENTRE

10 Vokiečių, LT-01130 Vilnius
Tel. 251 4130
E-mail:

Head – Prof. Dr. Vitalis Nakrošis

STAFF

Professors: Dr. V. Nakrošis, Dr. R. Vilpišauskas.
Associate professors: Dr. E. Barcevičius, Dr. Ž. Martinaitis, Dr. V. Kuokštis.
Assistant: Dr. I. Petronytė-Urbonavičienė.
Junior assistants: R. Švedas, L. Jurkonis, V. Pukinaitė.
Doctoral student: R. Bortkevičiūtė.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Research in all areas of the discipline: public administration, public policy process and public policy analysis

THE (POST)SOVIET MEMORY STUDIES CENTER

10 Vokiečių, LT-01130 Vilnius
Tel. 251 4130
E-mail:
www.memory.tspmi.vu.lt

Head – Prof. Dr. Ainė Ramonaitė

STAFF

Professors: Dr. A. Ramonaitė, Dr. V. Davoliūtė.
Associate professors: Dr. I. Vinogradnaitė, Dr. J. Dementavičius.
Assistant: Dr. J. Ulinskaitė.
Junior assistants: J. Kavaliauskaitė, M. Pakalnytė.
Doctoral students: V.Budreckaitė, R. Garškaitė, L. Vervečkienė.

RESEARCH PROJECTS CARRIED OUT IN 2019

National Research Projects

Research Council of Lithuania. Political Catholicism and Conservatism: (Trans)Formation of Tradition International Research Projects. (No. S–MOD 17–8). Assoc. Prof. Dr. J. Dementavičius. 2017–2019.

The main goal of this project is to analyse Lithuanian political Catholicism as a specific political ideology and to show its interrelation with contemporary conservatism. It is done by exploring its development since 19th century until present days and by researching its links with current trends in conservative ideology in Lithuania. Analysis will be done by using tools of hermeneutic interpretation, researching historical as well as contemporary trends in moderate right wing ideological worldviews. The main approach to this object will follow along the Oxford school of analysis of ideologies. One of the main features of it is attempt to research ideologies by studying their core ideas. But thick historical description can also help to link the most important right-wing representatives and their ideas with a wider European political context and intellectual debates.

Research Council of Lithuania. Voice of the Memory on the Screen: Poetics, History, and Politics. (No. S–MIP–17–39). Prof. Dr. N. Arlauskaitė. 2017–2019.

Three principal questions of the research may be formulated as follows: 1) How does the disembodied voice on the screen participate in producing and conveying personal and/or historical memory in relation to existing cinematic, cultural, and political conventions? 2) What kind of personal and historical memory speaks, to paraphrase Nabokov, through the multifariously invisible voice on the screen and by this – paradoxically – becomes present? 3) What viewing subjects are claimed by these narrative voice strategies?

Research Council of Lithuania (2014-2020 EU Investment in Lithuania). Developing Students’ Scientific Skills via Research Practice: New Forms of Action of Small States in the EU: the Case of Lithuanian “Advocacy” for Ukraine. Prof. G. Vitkus, K. Šermukšnytė. 2018–2019.

Research Council of Lithuania. Grybauskaitė’s Doctrine: Lithuanian Foreign Policy and the Role of President (No. S–LIP-18-46). Prof. T. Janeliūnas. 2018–2019.

The main task of the project is to conduct a study on the foreign policy of the President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė. Grybauskaitė’s positions and personal principles affecting Lithuania’s foreign policy decisions during the period of 2009–2019 will be analysed. The study should assess the mutual relationship between the 'structural forces' of the international system, that create a pressure for a small state to be adaptive and reactive, on the one hand, and the ambitions of 'an agent' having personal positions and believes, on the other hand. This would be the first coherent study in the field of the Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) in Lithuania. The case study would help to assess the role of the President in the process of Lithuania’s foreign policymaking. The study focuses on the shifts in Grybauskaitė’s positions from 2009 to 2019, and these dynamics are illustrated by reviewing the most important events of the decade of Lithuania’s foreign policy.

International Research Projects

Horizon 2020. The EU and Eastern Partnership Countries: An Inside-Out Analysis and Strategic Assessment. Prof. R. Vilpišauskas. 2016–2019.

The main goal of the project is to investigate under what conditions the EU strategies and instruments for its Eastern neighbours can be more effective. This project will address two questions: first, why has the EU fallen short of creating peace, prosperity and stability in its Eastern neighbourhood? Second, what can be done to strengthen the EU transformative power in supporting political and economic change in the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries?

Erasmus +. Jean Monnet Networks: Enhancing Visibility of the Academic Dialogue on EU-Turkey Cooperation (VIADUCT). Dr. I. Koreivaitė. 2017–2020.

VIADUCT’s general objective is to foster policy dialogue and to contribute in the exchange of views among academics and practitioners on recent developments in both the EU and Turkey. The aim is to improve and to enhance the teaching and research on this topic. VIADUCT’s target groups are academics, students and practitioners, civil society and public. Core of the project are three VIADUCT Weeks each consisting of an Annual Conference, a Working Turkey/PhD seminar and an Informal Policy Debate.

Erasmus +. Jean Monnet Networks: Navigating in the Storm. Prof. R. Vilpišauskas, Assoc. Prof. V. Kuokštis. 2017–2020.

VIADUCT’s general objective is to foster policy dialogue and to contribute in the exchange of Baldur Thorhallsson, Professor of Political Science at the University of Iceland leads the project on behalf of the University of Iceland in cooperation with Pia Hansson, Director of the Institute of International Affairs and Tómas Joensen, Project Manager at the Centre for Small State Studies. During the next three years, the ten higher education institutions will develop close cooperation in the field of small state studies. The grant will be used to host workshops, roundtables for young researchers, publish academic papers, policy recommendations, and at the end of the project an academic book.

Erasmus +. Small States Winter School Small States in Europe: Towards a Cross-Disciplinary Approach. Assoc. Prof. M. Šešelgytė. 2019–2021.

The primary objective of this partnership is to create a pan-European consortium of experts in small state studies that will train young teachers and researchers from International Relations and Political Science as well as other disciplines, such as Economics, Business, Public Administration and Law, in applying insights from small state studies to their research and teaching. As part of this project, the partners organized two summer academies in Reykjavík, and intensive study programs in Ljubljana and Vilnius. At the end of the project, the consortium will develop four new and innovative inter-disciplinary curricula in small state studies based on four teaching and research themes (TRT’s). TRT 1: Small states: Foreign policy and economic security; TRT 2: Small states addressing the migration crisis; TRT 3: Small states in international law; TRT 4: Small states and the challenges of good governance.

COST activity. EU Foreign Policy Facing New Realities: Perceptions, Contestation, Communication and Relations. Prof. D. Jakniūnaitė. 2018–2022.

The main aim and objective of the Action is to improve our understanding of central properties of European Union foreign policy in times of major internal and external change and to develop strategies to help practitioners to make the EU more resilient. This Action addresses the following questions: How these new foreign policy realities could be conceptualized, how they influence European views and practices and what can be recommended to the EU.

NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme. Small States and the New Security Environment (SSANSE). Assoc. Prof. M. Šešelgytė. 2017–2019.

The SSANSE project is a preparedness initiative examining the defence and foreign policy choices and challenges of small states in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Oceania in the new security environment. Small states make up half of the membership of the United Nations. Small states may be small in population and territory, but they have frequently had a disproportionate effect on global politics and they are more often affected by global shifts in power. SSANSE will extend theoretical debates on the role of small states in the changing international system as well as on the issue of how states manage their relations between the major powers in the new security environment.

MAIN R&D&I (RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION) PARTNERS

Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA)
Institute of International Affairs and Centre for Small States Studies, University of Iceland (Iceland)
Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki (Finland)
Glasgow University (United Kingdom)
Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) (Germany)

OTHER RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

Prof. N. Arlauskaitė –

Prof. D. Jakniūnaitė -

  • management committee participant in the Cost Activity CA17119: EU Foreign Policy Facing New Realities: Perceptions, Contestation, Communication and Relations, https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA17119/#tabs|Name: management-committee.

Prof. T. Janeliūnas -

Prof. A. Jokubaitis -

Prof. V. Nakrošis –

Prof. A. Ramonaitė –

Prof. R. Vilpišauskas -

Prof. G. Vitkus -

Assoc. Prof. L. Gudžinskas -

Assoc. Prof. A. Jankauskas -

Assoc. Prof. M. Šešelgytė -

BEST REPORTS DELIVERED AT CONFERENCES ABROAD

  • Prof. Dr. Violeta Davoliūtė. Experience and remembrance, the 16th Potsdam Postgraduate Forum on Contemporary History, 2019, Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF).
  • Prof. Dr. Vitalis Nakrošis. The use of information during the formulation and implementation of public management policy: the case of the Lithuanian Sunset Commissions during the period 1999–2016, IPPA conference, Montreal.
  • Dr. Lina Strupinskienė. What’s ICTY got to do with it: process-tracing reconciliation in BiH, IPSA Conference, Sarajevo, 2019.
  • Prof. Dr. Ramūnas Vilpišauskas. Flexibility as small state strategy: explaining Lithuania’s adjustment successes (co-author), Biennial Conference of the European Union Studies Association (EUSA), Denver, May 9–11, 2019.
  • Assoc. Prof. Vytautas Kuokštis. Retrospective voting in CEE, EPSA Conference, June 20–22, 2019, Belfast.

MOST IMPORTANT NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AWARDS RECEIVED FOR R&D ACTIVITIES

T. Janeliūnas received Vilnius University Rector’s Prize for Research.

MOST IMPORTANT PARTICIPATION CASES OF RESEARCHERS IN WORKING GROUPS OR COMMISSIONS SET UP BY STATE AUTHORITIES, STATE AND MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS, ORGANISATIONS, BUSINESS ENTITIES

  • N. Arlauskaitė - member of the Film Indexing Commission.
  • J. Dementavičius - member of the advisory group on the integrated Lithuanian education program.
  • T. Janeliūnas - member of the Judicial Ethics and Discipline Commission.
  • R. Vilpišauskas - member of the Commission for the Improvement of Public Administration (Sunset Commission).
  • V. Davoliūtė – expert at Estonian Research Council.

CONSULTATIONS PROVIDED BY THE UNIT TO THE PUBLIC OR ECONOMIC ENTITIES

  • Newsletter I think! (Topicalities! What do you think?) – materials for History, civic education, and geography teachers at secondary schools.
  • Trainings for the Policy Monitoring Network Learn before you vote.
  • Consultations for the Meno Avilys, an NGO based in Vilnius, Lithuania, specializes in the area of film education and film preservation (for conducting research project ”Women in Film Industry”).
  • Academic consultancy (Prof. Violeta Davoliūtė) for creators of the film Because of Stalin by Jonathan Andrews.
  • Academic consultancy (Assoc. Prof. Justinas Dementavičius) for creators of exhibition Spiritual Children of Fribourg: Lithuanians at the University of Fribourg and Their Importance for Lithuania organised by the Church Heritage Museum.

MOST IMPORTANT RESEARCH DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES

  • Comments of political events and phenomena for mass media (interviews, written comments, debates) – 42 researchers and PhD students made comments in 2019 (total number of comments (including repetitions) is appr. 5 000). The main topics were the functioning of Lithuanian party system and political institutions, national elections, Russian foreign and domestic policy, American politics.
  • Podcast Let’s Ask the Doctor (Klausiame daktaro) to present research results for a wider audience. Nine episodes were recorded in 2019. (https://www.spreaker.com/user/klausiame-daktaro).
  • Voting advice application (VAA) in Lithuania (www.manobalsas.lt) implemented for parliamentary, presidential and EP elections.
  • Telecast on Lithuanian National Radio and Television titled Mature Conversations (Brandūs pokalbiai), televised lecture series hosted by Prof. Alvydas Jokubaitis.
  • IIRPS VU Newsletter for subscribers.