On Wednesday 27th April 2005 LINKS hosted a discussion meeting at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London on the theme "Western Civil Society Engagement with Democratic State-building in the post-Soviet Space". Opening the discussion, the Executive Director of LINKS, Dennis Sammut said that western society engagement in the post soviet space has been largely benign and beneficial, even if sometimes chaotic. It thrived because on the whole it was not confrontational, nor sectarian, but engaged with a wide range of actors on a wide range of issues and at different levels. Those parts of the post soviet space that have been exposed most to this engagement are the ones which have shown a capacity for evolutionary change that has been wrongly depicted as revolutionary change. ( read full text >> )
The meeting was chaired by Lord McCluskey and attended by Ambassadors and diplomats accredited to London, politicians and civil society activists and journalists. A spokesperson for LINKS in London said that LINKS is keen to encourage a debate on the state of democracy in the post soviet space in order to reduce misperception and help analyse the best way societies in these countries in the process of democratic state-building. LINKS will be organising similar discussions in a number of CIS countries in the next months
