The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination will co-host a roundtable seminar, "The Political Future of Catalonia: Views from a Global Perspective," on Thursday, March 12, 2015, at 4:30 p.m. in 016 Robertson Hall. The event is co-sponsored with the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT) and the Princeton Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society. The roundtable participants are: Carles Boix, Robert Garrett Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University; Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, Founding Director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University; Albert Royo, Secretary General of the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia; and Francesc Vendrell, Adjunct Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, and former UN Assistant Secretary-General. To attend the session, RSVP to Angella Matheney. 

Carles Boix writes and teaches on comparative political economy and comparative politics. He is the author of Political Parties, Growth and Equality (Cambridge University Press, 1998), L'obertura catalana (Idees, 2002) and Democracy and Redistribution (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics (Oxford University Press, 2007). He has received the William Riker award for the best book on political economy twice, the Mattei Dogan award for best book published in the field of comparative research and the Heinz Eulau award for best article published in the American Political Science Review. His current research projects include: the exploration of the origins and persistence of economic inequality; the analysis of the conditions that led to the emergence of party systems and electoral institutions in advanced democracies; the application of agent-based models to understand the formation of states; and the internal structure of dictatorships.  Before joining Princeton he taught at the University of Chicago. Ph.D. Harvard University.

Wolfgang Danspeckgruber is the Founding Director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University and has been teaching on issues of state, security, self-determination, diplomacy, and crisis diplomacy at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Department of Politics since 1988. He is also founder and chair of the Liechtenstein Colloquium on European and International Affairs, LCM, a private diplomacy forum in Liechtenstein. Danspeckgruber researches, writes and teaches on security and state building issues in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the wider Middle East; on theory and practice of international diplomacy, private, and crisis diplomacy; the International Criminal Court; and issues concerning Religion and Diplomacy. Since 2001 he has visited Afghanistan, China, Georgia, India (Kashmir), Israel, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and has been involved in related private diplomacy. Until 2000, Danspeckgruber was involved in private diplomacy in Southeastern Europe and the Caucasus, and has also worked with the Ahtisaari Team and the EU Special Representative on the status of Kosovo. He conducted fact-finding missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia/Serbia.

Albert Royo was named Secretary General of the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia in February 2013. He was Secretary of Foreign Cooperation and Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Catalonia from 2004 until 2007 when several cooperation agreements with the United Nations were signed and when the network of government delegations abroad was set up. Since 2001, Royo had worked for the European Commission as head of the press and communication unit, as well as head of the political reporting unit at the Representation in Barcelona. Previously, he had worked for the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia to the European Union in Brussels. He holds a BA in Political Science and a Master's degree in Applied Economic Analysis from University Pompeu Fabra (UPF), as well as degree in European Affairs from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Moreover, he is a lecturer of European and International Institutions at UPF and has taught European Affairs at the Diplomatic School of Uruguay. As an electoral observer he took part in several international missions organized by the OSCE or the Government of Catalonia.

Francesc Vendrell is currently Adjunct Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University. His recent appointments include Mediator-in-Residence, UN Department of Political Affairs, 2014-15; Senior Visiting Fellow, LSE, London since 2011; Chair of the Board of the Afghanistan Analysts Network since 2010; and Senior Adviser, Inter-Mediate, London since 2012. He served as Special Representative of the European Union for Afghanistan (2002-2008); Personal Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Special Mission for Afghanistan (2000-2002). In a diplomatic career spanning forty years, thirty-four with the UN and over six with the EU, Vendrell has been involved in mediating a variety of conflicts as EU special representative for Afghanistan, UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, East Timor, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Central America. He has served as director of the Asia and Pacific Division at the UN Department of Political Affairs and as director for Europe and Americas in the Office of the UN Secretary-General. He was previously visiting fellow at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination and visiting professor at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, as well as a lecturer of Constitutional Law at the University of Papua New Guinea, director of studies at the Hague Academy of International Law, and adjunct professor at Yale University and Rutgers University.