On February 8, 2023, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies welcomed Dr. Giorgi Margvelashvili, fourth president of the Republic of Georgia (2013-2018), to deliver the 2023 Nanovic Forum lecture. Both online and to a packed Hesburgh Center auditorium at the University of Notre Dame, Margvelashvili delivered a lecture, titled “Russian Aggression in Ukraine and Eastern Europe: Post-Soviet Bloc Politics and Consequences.”
After a brief welcome from Clemens Sedmak, director of the Nanovic Institute and professor of social ethics, Margvelashvili was introduced by Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., vice president and associate provost for interdisciplinary initiatives, associate professor of political science, and Nanovic Institute faculty fellow at the University of Notre Dame. Dowd noted that he had the honor of first meeting Margvelashvili at an annual conference of the Catholic Universities Partnership at Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani University in Tbilisi in May 2022. “As a philosopher and political leader," Dowd said, "but also as a citizen of Georgia that was exposed to Russian aggression in 2008, Giorgi Margvelashvili has a lot to offer to help us to understand the situation that we now find ourselves in with regard to Europe and Russia, Russia and the world.”
The Institute has prepared an event brief that summarizes Margvelashvili’s lecture. A video of the lecture and discussion is also available on the Nanovic Institute’s website and YouTube channel.