12th IAPSS Academic Conference and General Assembly, Ljubljana 2009

Our motivation for the execution of this project originates from our belief that it will strengthen cooperation between student associations and students at the international level. We also believe that this kind of international projects are a great opportunity for meeting new people, getting to know their way of life, point of view and cultural background.

In the process of informal learning they enable young people to extend their horizons of thinking, as well as develop specific qualities. We are absolutely sure that this project will allow individuals to improve their perception of contemporary and relevant questions of our time and space and to take a more proactive role in their socio-political environment, thus contributing to the society as a whole at both the national and international level. At the General Assembly and Academic Conference of IAPSS in Ljubljana we are going to host more than 150 students of political science from Europe, South and North America, Africa and Asia. Most of our activities are going to take place at the Faculty of Social Sciences. We will also make free public access to some of the activities of the conference at Cankarjev dom.

The event is going to be split into two parts: the congress and academic conference. The latter will explore the topic "Political science: a different perspective". We are going to invite some of the most prominent academics to the conference in Ljubljana. At the academic part of the conference we will also host high-ranking Slovenian political officials.

Together with all the prominent guests we will be thinking about the status of political science of today. Twenty years since the fall of Berlin wall, seven years since the fall of the World Trade Center towers and in a time when financial crisis is taking its toll, we have to ask ourselves today what kind of role political science has in our world. What kind of future lays ahead of it, what are the concrete answers and solutions that it has to offer and most importantly what is its responsibility in dealing with the problems humanity is facing.

In accordance with the main topic of the project we will discuss questions that political science as a discipline has to confront in the light of global challenges. Environmental problems, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue are challenges of the world which we live in. It is becoming clear that this world does not own unlimited natural resources; it is inhabited with hundreds of millions of people whose greatest challenge is their sheer survival and it is a world which at the end of the day stays the same nonetheless.

Today, however, changes are more urgent as they have ever been before. Right now there is a challenge for political science to think about a new global arrangement and new ideological paradigm which will encourage solidarity and deter abuses of environment and set an ultimate goal of promoting the development of human potential and not it's shattering. With our conference we wish to contribute our part to the mosaic of these solutions.