Promotion of the Young Elite / Alumni
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Promoting the young, the future elite of a country, as well as cooperating with the present-day elite form one of the core missions of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) ever since its establishment in the 1960s. The Rule of Law Program South East Europe of KAS wishes to continue this mission. Its portfolio includes various successful national and regional projects focusing on young legal professionals and elites.
Among them are, to mention but a few, the “Shaken Order: Authority and Social Trust in Post-Communist Societies - Case Studies in Law”-Project, developed in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Studies, Sofia (Bulgaria), which will receive, in 2009, our support for the third time. The RLP SEE supports young researchers from the region to become fellows of the Center and conduct research on topics related to democratization and rule of law in transition countries.
Secondly, the RLP SEE, in cooperation with Pravnik (Lawyer), a young legal NGO from Bosnia-Herzegovina, organized in 2008, for the second time, the Sarajevo International Summer School. The Summer School gathered over 30 participants from Europe and the United States of America to discuss topics like the role of the EU in the Balkan area, rule of law, democracy and human rights, post-conflict reconstruction, dealing with the past by legal means, regional cooperation etc.
Thirdly, the Konrad Adenauer Regional Alumni Network-Legal Fields is the most recent project of the RLP SEE. It aims at bringing together former scholarship-holders of KAS who have studied law or related disciplines with the support of the KAS, both in the region of South East Europe, and in Germany, respectively. The first regional alumni meeting took place in Croatia in June 2008 and received excellent feedback from the participants. The project is intended to continue in the years to come. It aims at expanding the network of alumni concomitantly with giving them incentives to organize themselves and develop common projects of their own.
These are only three examples which show the commitment of the RLP SEE to support young people, future elites of their countries of origin and in the region. The interest with which these initiatives have been received both by the beneficiaries and the cooperating partners of the RLP SEE, as well as their proven success further demonstrate the need to develop similar and more specialized programs.
