Ognyan Minchev
Position: Chairman of the Managing BoardOgnyan Minchev is professor of political science, Dean of the Department of Political Science at the University of Sofia (1999- 2008) and policy analyst. He is one of the popular political commentators on domestic and international policy issues in Bulgaria. Dr. Minchev is heading the Institute for Regional and International Studies - a public policy think tank, focused on issues of democratization, institutional reform and development, modernization and security issues on the Balkans and in the Black Sea region. Ognyan Minchev is chairing the Board of Transparency International in Bulgaria - the international anti-corruption network and monitor. His publications are mostly focused on issues of post-communist transition, institutional reform and modernization, energy security, transatlantic relations, Russian and post-Soviet studies.
C U R R I C U L U M V I T A E
of Ognyan D. Minchev
I. Occupation
November 2013 - Chairman of the Bulgarian Political Science Association
January 2012 - Non-resident fellow of the Balkan Trust for Democracy – a Program of the German Marshall Fund of the US;
September 2007 - Appointed for Head of the Sofia office of the European Council on
June 2008 Foreign Relations;
October 2003 - Re-elected to Chair the Department of Political Science of the Sofia
October 2007 University St. Kliment Ohridski;
April 1998 Elected to Chair the Department of Political Science of the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski;
April 1997 Director of the Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS), independent public policy and research institution, associated on contract basis with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria and the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia;
February 1997-98 Rector - President of the Varna Free University;
September 1995 Associate Professor of International Relations, Department of Political Science, St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia (from September 1993);
October 1987 Senior Assistant Professor of Political Science - University of Sofia;
February 1982 Assistant Professor of Political Sociology - University of Sofia;
II. Grants and Fellowships
October 1999 Six weeks fellowship at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. – the Program for Eastern Europe;
February 1994 Two weeks grant by Friedrich Naumann Fund for liberal politics (Germany) for a seminar on building political strategies, in Sintra - Portugal;
September 1991 Ten months (full academic year) Fulbright fellowship in International Relations at the University of California - Los Angeles;
January 1986 Five months (one semester) fellowship in the Department of Philosophy at the Lomonossov State University of Moscow - USSR;
III. Positions of Public Service
June 1998 Chairman of the Board - Bulgarian National Chapter of Transparency International (TI);
January 1997 Member of the Open Society Fund Board of Trustees - Sofia, Bulgaria;
December 1996 Member of the Open Society East - East Program Expert Board - Sofia, Bulgaria
December 1994 Member of the Public Committee for Elections Monitoring in Bulgaria;
November 1994 Member of an International Monitoring Group for the 1994 Election in the US, organized by the American Council of Young Political Leaders;
October 1993 Member of the Euro-Atlantic Foundation Board in Sofia - Bulgaria;
September 1992 Member of the Executive Council of the International Helsinki Citizens' Assembly - an International Civic Movement and Human Rights Watch;
March 1991 Chair of the Bulgarian Committee of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly;
IV. Membership in Professional Organizations
September 2004 Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London – Great Britain
January 1994 Founding member and Vice-Chair of the Bulgarian Association of International Relations;
April 1992 Member of the North American International Studies Association (ISA);
October 1990 Founding member of the Bulgarian Political Science Association;
June 1990 Founding member of the Academic Association of British Studies in Bulgaria;
March 1985 Member of the Bulgarian Sociological Association;
V. Education and Degrees
January 1990 Doctor of Sociological Science (Habilitated Doctor of Science), including Ph.D., from the University of Sofia and the State Council of Degrees;
July 1982 MA - Sociology, University of Sofia - Bulgaria (June 1981 - BA);
June 1977 English Language High School - Varna, Bulgaria;
VI. International Lecturing and Conference Participation
October 2013 Throughout the period between 2004-2013 my lecturing and conference presentations’ experience has continued intensely, yet presenting it in detail would make this CV difficult to operate reasonably;
September 2004 Role of Policy Research and Analyses in Preparing Advocacy and Public Awareness Campaigns – presentation at the Freedom House
Seminar in Opatia - Croatia
March 2004 Being European: Bulgaria and Europe, Past, Present, Future Lecture at University College London
February 2003 Paper presented at the annual convention of the North American International Studies Association in Portland, Oregon;
February 2003 Lecturing in US colleges and universities within the German Marshall Fund Fellowship “Campus Fellowship Program”. Lectures at The University of Maine at Presque Isle, at the Lake Forest College, Illinois;
June 2002 Study tour in Washington D.C. for presenting the IRIS publication “Bulgaria for NATO”, a book presenting the Bulgarian application for membership;
June 2000 Study tour participant in a Program of the German Marshall Fund to bring Balkan experts to discuss regional affairs with representatives of US Federal institutions, Us think tanks and journalists;
November 1999 Security and Reconstruction in South-Eastern Europe: Strategies and Realities in the Aftermath of the Kosovo Crisis – lecture at the CSIS
in Washington D.C.;
The Security Agenda of South-Eastern Europe in the Aftermath of the Kosovo Crisis – lecture at the Foreign Service Institute of the State
Department of the US;
February 1998 The NATO Enlargement to the East and the New Security Agenda of Southeastern Europe - lecture at the Georgetown University Center
for Eurasian, Russian and Eastern European Studies;
The NATO Enlargement to the East and the New Security Agenda of Southeastern Europe - lecture at the State University of New York
- Albany School of Public Affairs;
January 1997 Liberal State, Culture and Group Political Rights - paper at the international conference “The Balkans and the Future of the Liberal State” - Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, organized by the Central European University and the Open Society Fund;
April 1996 The Extension of NATO, Russia and the Balkans - lecture at University of California - Berkeley Center for European and German Studies (April 15);
Bulgarian Foreign Policy and the Balkan Crisis 1990-1996 - lecture at the University of Washington (Seatle) Center for International Relations (April 19);
Comparative Nationalism in the Post Communist World - lecture at the New School of Social Research in New York (May 2);
September 1995 Six Years of Change in Central and Eastern Europe - International Conference in Sofia - Bulgaria, paper: The Metamorphoses of the Bulgarian Communist Elite in the Years of Change;
April 1995 The Other Balkan Wars - International Conference of the Carnegie Endowment and of the Free and Democratic Bulgaria Foundation in Sofia - Bulgaria, paper: Are Eastern European Nations Capable of Resolving Their Problems Themselves;
October 1994 The Post Modern Nationalism Conference in Bucharest Institute of Ethnic Studies - Rumania, paper: Nationalism vs. Fundamentalism - the Changing Ideologies of Culture Clash;
June 1994 Conflict Prevention in the Southern Balkans Conference in Lagonisi - Greece, Paper on Civic Methods of Conflict Prevention;
April 1994 Visiting Lecturer - The Post-Yugoslav Crisis and the Balkan Security Problems - Brandeis University, Dept. of Political Science;
April 1994 Paper on the Regional Implications of the Post-Yugoslav Crisis at the Annual Convention of the North American ISA
- Washington DC;
March 1994 Conflict Prevention on the Balkans Conference in Sofia - Bulgaria, Chair, Paper on the Public, Civic Methods in Easing Ethnic Tensions;
February 1994 Visiting Lecturer - Ethno-Religious Strife in the Post Communist World - Its Effects on the Changing International System - University of Lisbon, Portugal;
November 1993 Civil Society and Political Change in Central Europe Conference in Prague, the Czech Republic, Paper on Ethnic Diversity and Political Representation;
September 1993 Comparative Balkan Parliamentarism Conference - Institute of Federalism, University of Fribourg - Switzerland and the Center for Social and Political Studies - University of Sofia, Paper on Liberal Democracy and Minority Rights - The Challenge of Post Communist South Eastern Europe;
May 1992 Visiting Lecturer - Comparative Social and Political Change in Eastern Europe - at the Occidental College - Los Angeles, CA;
April 1992 Paper on the Balkan Balance of Powers in the Changing System of Regional Relations after the 1989 - Annual Convention of
ISA - Atlanta, GA;
March 1992 New Europe and the World Conference - Western Michigan University, Paper: The Balkans and the Changing Strategic Balance in Post Communist Europe;
October 1991 - July 1992
Series of Lectures at the UCLA - Departments of History, Sociology and Political Science , the Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies - on the Issues of Post Communist and Changing Societies, the Balkan Crisis;
VII. Basic Fields of Research and Lecturing Interests
- Basic trends of change in the international system in the Post Cold War period.
- Comparative post Cold War nationalism and ethnic conflict. Comparative regional studies.
- Comparative Balkan and Post Soviet crises. Culture, ethnicity and religion as means of political legitimization. ‘Weak states’ and institutional challenges of post communism.
- Security Dilemmas of Post Communism. NATO enlargement.
- Comparative social and political change in post communist Central and Eastern Europe. Democratization Paradigm vs. Paradigm of Development.
- Strategic implications of regional infrastructure development in Central and Southeastern Europe;
- Corruption and transformation policies of the post communist world.
VIII. Basic Publications
Please, refer to www.iris-bg.org links Publications (Books and Papers) and IRIS Policy Papers Collection for details on my publishing activities in the last two decades;
Bulgaria for NATO, monographic study, Editor – June 2002, IRIS – Sofia
The Balkans After Milosevic: Happy End Postponed, in: IRIS Quarterly Policy Report, Summer – Autumn 2000, Sofia – Bulgaria
Security and Reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe: A Policy Outlook from the Region, (ed.), Institute for Regional and International Studies, Sofia Bulgaria, 2000
Regional Infrastructure Projects in South-Eastern Europe, (ed.), Institute for Regional and International Studies, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1999
Macedonia: Milosevic’s Last Trump Card, in RUSI Journal, London, June 1999
The Extension of NATO, Russia and the Balkans, In: Berkeley Journal of International Affairs, 1998;
Is It Possible for the Eastern European Peoples to Solve their problms On Their Own? in: The Carnegie Report and the Balkans Today, Sofia 1996
Liberal Democracy and Minority Rights: The Challenge of Changing South Eastern Europe, in the collection "Comparative Balkan Parliamentarism", Sofia 1995;
Bulgaria's Post Communist Transition - 1995, collection, Sofia 1997;
The Third Alternative of Bulgarian Politics and the New Dimensions of Social Change, in the collection "Searching the Democratic Perspective", Sofia 1994;
National Security and Social Change in Post Communist Europe, study in "Godishnik na Sofiyskiya universitet", Sofia 1994;
The Balkans in the Changing Security System of Europe, paper at the seminar "NATO and the Security Problems of Central and Eastern Europe" - Institute of East- West Studies, Sofia University Center for Ideologies, Sofia - November 1993;
The Balkans and the Changing Strategic Balance in Post Communist Europe, in the collection "The New Europe and the World", New Issues Press & the Western Michigan University, 1993;
The Labor Party and the Crisis of Post War Consensus in British Politics, monograph, St. Kliment Ohridski Press, Sofia 1991;
Nationalism and Welfare in Western Europe (On the Example of Britain), study in "Godishnik na Sofiyskiya universitet", Sofia 1989;
IX. Personal Information
Born - December 2, 1958, married (1988), one child (Margarita – born 2004);