One hundred years after it was introduced into the international political arena by Woodrow Wilson and Wladimir I. Lenin, the concept of self-determination remains highly controversial in Europe (e.g. Catalonia), in the Middle East (e.g. the Kurdish question, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) and in Asia (e.g. Tibet, Kashmir). Political debates, academic discourse and diplomatic practice still have to find common ground.
The Liechtenstein Institute's new map room offers the opportunity to analyze questions of self-determination in their specific geopolitical context and to build a bridge between self-determination in political theory and its realities on the ground.
Ambassador Hans-Ulrich Seidt, former German ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and board member of the Swiss Afghanistan Institute/ Bibliotheca Afghanica, will during his lecture on the Afghan Boundary Commission, show how the LISD's new map room could be used for discussions on self-determination in the 21st century.
Ambassador Hans-Ulrich Seidt has served most recently as Inspector General of the German Foreign Office. Seidt was Director General for Culture and Communication of the German Foreign Office from 2012 to 2014 and Germany’s ambassador to Korea from 2009 to 2012. He served as Germany’s ambassador to Afghanistan from 2006 to 2008. His diplomatic postings have included Moscow, Nairobi, Brussels NATO, and Washington, DC. During the Balkan wars Seidt served from 1994 to 1997 as deputy director of the Special Task Force Bosnia of the German government. Seidt studied law, history, and international relations at the universities of Tübingen, Geneva, Bonn, and at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Paris. He passed both legal state examinations and received a PhD in contemporary history and international relations from Bonn University. He taught international relations at the Otto-Suhr-Institute at the Free University Berlin. Seidt is a member of the board and vice-chairman of the Dresden Cultural Foundation, a member of the board of the Swiss Afghanistan Institute/Bibliotheca Afghanica, and has received honorary doctorates from Valparaiso University (USA) and Chonnam National University (Gwangju, Korea). Visit our website for further information: https://lisd.princeton.edu/